Les grandes vacances (1967)

Directed by: Jean Girault | 84 minutes | comedy | Actors: Louis de Funès, Ferdy Mayne, Martine Kelly, François Leccia, Olivier De Funès, Claude Gensac, Maurice Risch, Jacques Dynam, Dominique Davray, Mario David, Jean St. Clair, Christiane Muller, Denise Provence, François Girault, Silvia Dionisio René Bouloc, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Jacques Dublin, Dominique Maurin, Guy Grosso, Carlo Nell, Daniel Bellus, Max Montavon, Robert Destain, Jacques Famery

For ‘Les grandes vacances’, De Funès once again joins forces with director Jean Girault, with whom he had made and would make several films in the successful “Gendarme” series. The result is a smooth, and often hectic farce filled with physical comedy, mistaken identity and chases. The plot itself isn’t particularly interesting and it gets a little chaotic at times, but the comedy usually works well and the atmosphere is pleasantly French.

De Funès once again plays his typical, neurotic character who tries to keep order but fails miserably and hopelessly lags behind the facts. And rides, and flies, and speeds, and gallops… It’s like a triathlon that Charles Bosquier (De Funès) is doing. Or an oversized episode of “On land, at sea, and in the air”. Or ‘North by Northwest’ as a slapstick comedy. Anyway, the film is an entertaining ratatouille of comic situations.

The cracks with classic French cars are reason enough to watch this film. It is both funny and exciting to see Charles in his beautiful Citroën DS chasing his son and the English student in a small Renault 5; through the park, through back alleys against the traffic, and everything at full throttle. And because the film is sometimes played faster, it all becomes even more manic.

Although ‘Les grandes vacances’ sinks in a bit in the middle and the scenes with only the youngsters are not very interesting, the film has some nice recurring jokes (such as Charles sending everyone to bed at the table regardless of the time) and closes the film with a dazzling finale in which De Funès can go wild. Shortly after, he is in a car, on a boat, in an airplane, on a paragliding screen, and in a horse and carriage. And accompanied by cheerful music that stays in your head for hours after the movie. ‘Les grandes vacances’ is a sympathetic, farcical comedy with De Funès in top form.