The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Oscar
Comedy · 1967
This film originated as a play in Paris. The story focuses on the one-day adventures of Bertrand Barnier played with a genius of French cinema, Louis de Funes. In the same morning he learns that his daughter is pregnant, an employee stole a large amount of money from his company, his maid is about to resign in order to marry a wealthy neighbor and his body builder is interested in marrying his daughter. The seemingly complicated story-line is full of comedy or errors and some of the most hilarious mime scenes of the French cinema.
Movie details
Oscar
1967 Comedy 1h 25m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.5 / 10
8.6K votes
TMDB
7.3 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
This film originated as a play in Paris. The story focuses on the one-day adventures of Bertrand Barnier played with a genius of French cinema, Louis de Funes. In the same morning he learns that his daughter is pregnant, an employee stole a large amount of money from his company, his maid is about to resign in order to marry a wealthy neighbor and his body builder is interested in marrying his daughter. The seemingly complicated story-line is full of comedy or errors and some of the most hilarious mime scenes of the French cinema.
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 Oscar?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe 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.
Heartbeat
Comedy · 1938
A pompous grocer’s assistant in Marseille annoys a visiting film crew so much that they prank him with a phony acting contract; believing it to be real, the “schpountz” heads to Paris for his new career.
Squeak-squeak
Comedy · 1963
Léonard Monestier owns a large fortune, alas his wife Cynthia made a bad investment in a worthless oil concession. Far from letting this get him down, Léonard decides to find a sucker to buy this concession from him. Right on cue appears Antoine Brévin, a befuddled billionaire who is very interested in Léonard's beautiful daughter Patricia and would do anything to win her hand...
The Miser
Comedy · 1980
The children of Harpagon, Cléante and his sister Elise, are each in love but they still haven’t spoken to their father yet. Harpagon is a miser who wants to choose the right man and the right woman for his children. Based on Molière’s play.
The Wild Goose Chase
Comedy · 1975
The whole intrigue is centered around carte-blanche documents kept in a vault. Whoever fills in the blank becomes the owner of a revue. Big money is involved. The nephew of the owner of the vault is trying to cheat his uncle and have his name in the documents. Everything is even more complicated because the manager of the bank has a finger in the pie, too. Who but a humble bank-teller (Pierre Richard) will ruin the scheme?
Happy Easter
Comedy · 1984
Chronic serial womanizer Stephane Margelle drops his wife Sophie off at the airport so she can go away for Easter weekend. He immediately picks up beautiful young Julie, who has just had a fight with her married boyfriend. He gets her back to his apartment and is preparing for a sexy weekend, when his wife suddenly returns home. He makes up a bizarre, on-the-spot, spur-of-the-moment story that the gorgeous girl is actually his long-lost daughter. Julie plays along, but this leads to a whole series of increasingly ridiculous lies and comical situations (such as when her real mother shows up).
Serial (Bad) Weddings 2
Comedy · 2019
Claude and Marie Verneuil face a new crisis. The four spouses of their daughters, David, Rachid, Chao and Charles decided to leave France for various reasons. Here they are imagining their lives elsewhere.
The Honey Pot
Comedy · 1967
In Venice, a millionaire hires an actor to help him prank three greedy exes into thinking he's dying and leaving his fortune to one of them.
Take the Money and Run
Comedy · 1969
Virgil Starkwell is intent on becoming a notorious bank robber. Unfortunately for Virgil and his not-so-budding career, he is completely incompetent.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Comedy · 1988
Con artist Lawrence Jamieson is a longtime resident of a luxurious coastal resort, where he enjoys the lavish fruits of his deceptions -- that is, until a competitor, Freddy Benson, shows up. When the new guy's lowbrow tactics impinge on his own sophisticated work and believing him to be the infamous conman 'The Jackal', Lawrence resolves to get rid of him. Confident of his own duplicitous talents, he challenges Freddy to a winner-takes-all competition: whoever swindles their latest mark, American heiress Janet Colgate, out of $50,000 first can stay, while the other must leave town.
Freaky Friday
Comedy · 2003
Mother and daughter bicker over everything -- what Anna wears, whom she likes and what she wants to do when she's older. In turn, Anna detests Tess's fiancé. When a magical fortune cookie switches their personalities, they each get a peek at how the other person feels, thinks and lives.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Édouard Molinaro
Written by
Claude Magnier
Louis de Funès
Bertrand Barnier
Claude Rich
Christian Martin, prétendant de la fille Barnier
Agathe Natanson
Colette Barnier, fille de Bertrand et Germaine
Claude Gensac
Mme Germaine Barnier, épouse de Bertrand
Sylvia Saurel
Jacqueline Bouillotte, fille naturelle de Bertrand et Germaine
D
Dominique Page
Bernadette, domestique des Barnier et future Mme la baronne
Paul Préboist
Charles, domestique des Barnier
Court is in session
Put Oscar on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.