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Pardon Mon Affaire

Pardon Mon Affaire

Comedy · Romance · 1976

On an otherwise normal day, Étienne, a happily married man and a good father, sees something that stops him dead in his tracks: a gorgeous woman in a billowing red dress. Long after she has left his vision, her memory continues to haunt his mind. He falls instantly in love with her and tries everything to get to know her better. Helping Étienne snare his elusive lady in red are his three bumbling buddies, which all have secret affairs and/or cheat on their wives.

Movie details

Pardon Mon Affaire

“«Four million Frenchmen and 50,000 New Yorkers can't be wrong»”

1976 Comedy · Romance 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

2.6K votes

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

On an otherwise normal day, Étienne, a happily married man and a good father, sees something that stops him dead in his tracks: a gorgeous woman in a billowing red dress. Long after she has left his vision, her memory continues to haunt his mind. He falls instantly in love with her and tries everything to get to know her better. Helping Étienne snare his elusive lady in red are his three bumbling buddies, which all have secret affairs and/or cheat on their wives.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Pardon Mon Affaire?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Yves Robert

Written by

Yves Robert · Jean-Loup Dabadie

Jean Rochefort

Jean Rochefort

Étienne

Claude Brasseur

Claude Brasseur

Daniel

Guy Bedos

Guy Bedos

Simon

Victor Lanoux

Victor Lanoux

Bouly

Danièle Delorme

Danièle Delorme

Marthe Dorsay

Anny Duperey

Anny Duperey

Charlotte

Marthe Villalonga

Marthe Villalonga

Mouchy Messina

Court is in session

Put Pardon Mon Affaire on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.