Jean Girault : ... oblivion in outer space.

In the battle to mine De Funès gold, Jean Girault initially seemed to have the edge. Despite the « gendarme » franchise, he somehow lost it.

De Funès’s higher profile films and biggest box office hits were with Gérard Oury : « Le corniaud » (1965), « La grande vadrouille » (1966).

Jean Girault’s winning formula was De Funés’s and a supporting cast, Oury’s the odd couple : with Bourvil first, then with Yves Montand in « La folie des grandeurs » (1971), a half-successful period comedy loosely based on Victor Hugo’s « Ruy Blas », eventually with himself : in « Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob » (1973), De Funès plays a prejudiced French business man forced to impersonate a US rabbi.

It is true that Gérard Oury’s first association with De Funès came before « Pouic-Pouic », but in « Le crime ne paie pas » (1961), De Funès was, as usual then, far from the top of the bill.

To compensate for his favourite actor’s increasing unavailability, Jean Girault tried his hand at a younger and sillier brand of humour. He had taken « Le gendarme » to New York, he took « Les charlots » to « Spain » (« Les charlots font l’Espagne » - 1972). Maybe he had a gift for foreign languages.

« Les Charlots » were a short-lived, musical then screen sensation of the lowest order. Though Jean Girault took them to Spain, their fame never crossed French borders. They were the conscious parody of a very distant French answer to British pop groups : the Dumb Four.

Their success remains a mystery to which I am a party. I never was a fan of them, did not enjoy their music, I nevertheless watched most of their films. Why ? I could not say. Maybe, all kids are rabid image eaters : they sort them out later.

Claude Zidi’s was « Les Charlots »’s appointed director. Later in the 1970’s, he got more than even with Girault : he borrowed De Funès for two films.

« L’aile ou la cuisse » (1976) simultaneously played the odd couple and crossover cards. Zidi partnered De Funès with comic boy wonder Coluche, as immensely popular as him and a genuine major leaguer, unlike « Les charlots ». Film topic was as consensual as can be imagined in France : food. De Funès played a food critic who loses all sense of taste and goes to his estranged part-time clown son Coluche for help. Film was a -public- success.

« La Zizanie » (1978) was « L’aile ou la cuisse » perfect opposite. The movie subject was the most divisive of all : politics, though with a fashionable ecological background. De Funès was married to Annie Girardot, it was no happy marriage. Zidi aimed again for a winsome odd couple, he got the wrong one : fire plus fire ; overacting and overacting ; his funny, hers not -or accidentally in other films supposed to be dramas.

Film was a flop. This was no doubt sweet vindication for Claude Gensac.

Maybe its failure also lived up to the promise of its title and bred « zizanie » -discord- between Zidi and De Funès.

In 1978, Jean Girault seemed to have lost the De Funès wars for good : their last film together was 1971 « Jo ». In 1979, the director unexpectedly rebounded : for four years and four films, Girault and De Funès would work exclusively with each other.

« Le gendarme et les extraterrestres » (1979) and « Le gendarme et les gendarmettes » (1982) were too sad efforts by ageing men to rejuvenate a dying franchise and demonstrate they remained finely tuned to their times : in the first one, De Funès faced aliens, in the latter one, female colleagues ; both encounters were scary and no fun.

« L’avare » (1979), based on Molière’s classic play of a man in love with his « cassette » -money box- was a naive and doomed shot at critical recognition.

« La soupe aux choux » (1981) was a misguided screen adaptation of a popular novel, involving again a visitor from outer space, with a weak spot for cabbage soup.

De Funès is often described as a great actor in mediocre films. This is unfair. The actor is good because the films are mediocre, the films are mediocre to give him every opportunity to be good.
De Funès films are concertos written for a solo player. At regular intervals, the orchestra stops to play and leaves the virtuoso alone to show off his technique and engage into his madness. The work balance is shattered, but the star shines and the crowd loves it as much as in the golden age of Bel Canto, when the operas librettos served only as pretext to vocal performance.

Erotic cinema scripts laboriously plod between sex scenes, Jean Girault movies stumble from De Funès antics to more De Funès antics. Filmed sex amateurs are fair enough not to complain about story gaps.

Four De Funès films in four years was too much for Jean Girault. He died while shooting « Le gendarme et les gendarmettes » : of exhaustion ? too much pleasure ? overwhelmed by the true mediocrity of what would be his last film ?

Maybe the aliens from « Le gendarme et les extraterrestres » and « La soupe aux choux » grew so fond of him and his films they returned and took him home with them.

His partner in filmmaking did not survive him long. Louis De Funès died in 1983, twenty years after « Pouic-Pouic ». « Le gendarme et les gendarmettes » was his last film too. A sad ending, unless he too was taken away by aliens to a distant planet and reunited with Girault for a local remake of the « gendarme » franchise.

If so, Claude Gensac was left behind and unconsoled : « Le gendarme et les gendarmettes » was not her last film, but she has since come out of mourning in only three movies.