Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: a cult comedy with Coluche.
A popular French humorist of the 1970s, Coluche dabbled in everything: from stage to television and radio. In 1975, he turned to the cinema thanks to Patrice Leconte, who offered him his first role in the feature film Les Vécés were closed from the inside. Although the success is limited, the actor continues this path.
In the early 1980s, Coluche went through a dark period between his chaotic presentation in the 1981 presidential election, his divorce, then the suicide of his friend Patrick Dewaere. As he sank into depression, alcohol and drugs, the actor experienced one of his greatest professional successes in 1983 thanks to his completely crazy role in Banzaï, which totaled 3.7 million admissions.
For his third collaboration with the director Claude Zidi – after The Wing or the thigh, where he gave the reply to Louis De Funès, and Inspecteur la Bavure, where he shared the poster with Gérard Depardieu -, Coluche lends his features to Michel Bernardin, an employee of an assistance company specializing in helping French travelers abroad. By a combination of circumstances and misunderstandings, he is led, very involuntarily, to meet his fiancée in Hong Kong.
With a comfortable budget allowing it delirious special effects, the film has become cult thanks to its anthology scenes such as the mosquito bite, the camel scene or the plane crash. If the script is not absolutely subtle, the antics of one of the greatest French comedians hit the mark and are enough to captivate from start to finish. Special mention to the lively music of master Vladimir Cosma.
Banzaï by Claude Zidi with Coluche, Valérie Mairesse, François Perrot…
Tonight on TFX at 9:05 p.m.