La caza del hombre

Incoherent, unfunny and casually sexist; the director, Edouard Molinaro, tries some freewheeling New Wave tricks, but the comic sensibility is much closer to a Jerry Lewis film or the Carry On series. All-star cast (with all the females wasted on shallow roles) and attractive Greek scenery (in the second half) are of little help. * out of 4.

"La chasse a l'homme" is a delightfully funny movie, made with remarkable professionalism and accuracy by Edouard Molinaro, a director hugely gifted for comedies. The story revolves around various love/adulterine/sexy affairs, with an array of extremely comic situations. The brilliant dialogue is written with outstanding care. Much fun is based on a good-natured satire of the French cultural fashion-mania of that epoch: Existentialism, leftist "rive gauche" ideology, Sartre, Juliette Greco and so on. The cinematography is excellent, even too much for this sort of light-minded film. In fact, it seems to be an amiable mocking of the "nouvelle vague" style, another cultural icon of the early 1960s.

The audience is gratified with the dazzling beauty of 21-years-old Catherine Deneuve, at the start of her career, in a minor but remarkably sexy role. The whole cast makes an outstanding job. Jean-Claude Brialy and Claude Rich are wonderful. A young soon-to-be-superstar Jean Paul Belmondo is excellent in his trade-mark role of the nice rascal. Look at the nod he makes to invite the aged rich woman to sit down at his table, in the Greek tavern: how could a guy be nicer than Belmondo?

The first part of the film is perhaps the funniest, with a sequence of weird flashbacks to introduce the characters. But the second part is made precious by the presence of sweet Francoise Dorleac. I have a very soft eye for that poor girl. She has not the perfect beauty of her sister Catherine Deneuve, but, in my opinion, she is one of the most appealing women to have graced the screen. There she is: beautiful, nice and keen, charming, sweet, lovely, incredibly attractive and sexy (look at her eyes!), and so much talented, really a born-to-act girl. It is heart-breaking to see Francoise on the screen (always on the verge of falling in love with her...), meanwhile knowing that she was killed in a terrible car accident, at age twenty-five.

Well, that is "La chasse a l'homme": a little masterpiece, plus the jewel Francoise Dorleac.

A superb piece of french cinema with brilliant and witty dialogues written by Michel Audiard. The film is worth seeing for its great cast mixing new figures emerged with "La Nouvelle vague" like Brialy and Belmondo, charming actresses like a young Deneuve and an always spellbinding Laforêt, and hilarious acts by Blier, Serrault and Blanche. Belmondo is asked : "Depuis quand nages-tu dans le bonheur ?" He answers : "Depuis 30 secondes !". Inimitable french "humour" which always succeed in lightening our postmodern existences.

This is what I would call a "good-bad" film. Let me explain: on the one hand, "La Chasse à l'homme" (Male Hunt) is a pretty good comedy, witty (with dialogues by Michel Audiard, that says it all), well-made by the always competent Edouard Molinaro and played by an impressive bunch of great actors, many of whom are the children of the French New wave. It is fun and light-hearted. Plus there are beautiful Greek locations and the rhythm is good. The question can be asked then : what more do you want ?

Well, it seems to me that for a work of art to be worthwhile it must rest on sound bases and this is the "more" I missed to make me enjoy this otherwise good quality product to the full. For if the form of "La chasse à l'homme" is satisfying, that is not the case with its substance. Blame it on its awfully misogynist tone, which makes adhering to the story and the characters difficult. And whose fault is it? Believe it or not, ... a woman's ! For the scriptwriter is none other than France Roche, better known as a journalist. A woman lashing out at creatures of the same sex, that may seem paradoxical at first sight, but this is hardly the first time a girl has shown herself on par with the fiercest macho female bashers. Even worse (maybe also because the writer is a woman), men are not spared either. Which results in an ultra- cynical apologue whose moral can be summed up as follows: women and men all despise each other but all women invariably manipulate all men into marrying them, however macho and big-mouthed they may be. Sorry, Miss Roche, but all that is a bit brief, don't you think?

Luckily, Edouard Molinaro will pursue the male-female relationships issue in a less cynical, more inspired way. Filmed two decades later, "L'Amour en douce" is an exquisitely delicate romantic comedy, this time reflecting the director's true colors.

Of course, "La Chasse à l'homme" being an unpretentious movie, the viewer can easily set aside all the considerations above and just have fun. After all, it is a film that can boast amusing finds (a hunting party in which the hunters are women and the game three bare-chested men, a parody of French gangster films in the Belmondo episode, the same scenes seen differently through the subjectivity of the three main characters, ...). One can also admire Molinaro's technical mastery : it is a known fact that he always gives close attention to the movie he makes, even when they are just commercial. In the present case, he resorts to all kinds of devices (upward and low angle shots, picture-in- picture, speed up editing, silent scenes with voice over, spoken ones with subtitles) so as to make "La Chasse à l'homme" something other than the bomb it would have been in more careless hands. And of course there are the actors. The stellar cast is justification alone to watch it. It would be too long (and self-evident) to sing in detail the praises of Belmondo, Brialy, Claude Rich, Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve, Blier, Francis Blanche (and there are some I am forgetting), but Marie Laforêt is an absolute scream as Gisèle, Antoine's languid, depressive and poetic rich fiancée.

It will then be for you to decide whether "La Chasse à l'homme" is a good film (it does have entertaining virtues) or a bad one (for being hollow and over-cynical) or else to join my club and find it, like me, a "good-bad" film.

The theme of this lightweight comedy is the eternal chase by females after eligible males with the object of matrimony and the endeavors of the males to get away. Edouard Molinaro is considered as an apt director of comedies: after all, he got two Oscars nominations for "La cage aux folles" in 1980 -- "Oscar", "My uncle Benjamin" and "L'emmerdeur" are other highlights in his career. "Male Hunt" may be not as famous, but it is nevertheless a watchable movie in spite of a monotonous script (you get very quickly the idea that women are all manipulative little temptresses). But thanks to a brilliant cast, with the young Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy and Claude Rich and such beauties as the Dorléac sisters (Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac in their prime, i.e. simply beautiful), Mireille Darc, Marie Laforêt, Marie Dubois..., this flick couldn't be a complete failure. And there is Francis Blanche who is as usually a riot as a Greek(!) detective(!!). Bernard Blier is also hilarious as Catherine Deneuve's father. The other strength of the movie is its brilliant dialogs. Michel Audiard had apparently a lot of fun when he wrote sparkling lines that equal (almost) Sacha Guitry in his best plays. Then Molinaro wrapped the whole thing up in a flashy cinematic style (with scenes caught from oblique angles, images within frames, chases à la Mack Sennett...).

A young idle bachelor (Jean-Claude Brialy) aims to get married. His best friend (Claude Rich) thinks he is daft, and desperately, diligently persuades him to give up the reckless idea telling him horrible marriage stories. But on a break-away cruise of the Greek islands our chap meets a predatory young woman (Françoise Dorléac) whose intentions are much more deceptive and whose aim more sure than those of any of the girls he has met...

OK, this movie is not likely to stick in your head for 10 minutes after you've seen it, but you might give it a try.