La poupée

La Poupee (or The Doll) is a broad political satire where a revolutionary has to take the place of a dictator.

Zbigniew Cybulski, so good in Ashes and Diamonds, plays, poorly, two roles here. He is both The Colonel, an over-the-top dictator of a South American country and also a well-meaning revolutionary. When the dictator suddenly dies, the revolutionary has to take his place, since both the government officials and the revolutionaries find it necessary for the Colonel to live a little longer. The reason why I did not quite get. Cybulski overplays The Colonel in an annoyingly broad way, yet he underplays the revolutionary to the point that the character seems to have no personality at all.

In addition to the main plot, the film has a science fiction angle with a scientist, critical of the Colonel, developing a machine which can produce a double of anything. The scientist produces a double of a rich woman and then somehow enters the double and uses her to give voice to the revolution.

Neither of these storylines are very interesting. The humor is too broad (there is a particularly annoying actor in drag serving as a chorus). Admittedly, the film features some stylish moments, but whatever statement it is trying to make gets lost.