Summary
Charles Duchemin is France’s most reputed culinary expert, an esteemed food critic and
author of the best-selling Duchemin restaurant guide. He is about to be received
into the Académie Française and plans to retire, intending that his
son Gérard will continue his work. Unfortunately, Gérard’s sole ambition
is to be a comedian and, without his father knowing, he works part-time as a clown in
a travelling circus. Duchemin’s mortal enemy is Jacques Tricatel, the supermarket
magnate who is planning to open a chain of fast-food restaurants. When he hears
about this, Duchemin agrees to appear on a chat show with Tricatel in order to expose
him as an enemy of French cuisine. However, before the show goes out Duchemin loses
his sense of taste and Tricatel discovers his son’s secret pastime...
Review
Good food and comic farce are just two of the essential ingredients of French culture
which are brought together to great effect in L’Aile ou la cuisse. The film
sees the first collaboration between director Claude Zidi and comic giant Louis de Funès
(who, despite his declining health, remained the most popular and sought after comic actor
in France). More significantly, French cinema audiences were greeted to the spectacle
of the improbable pairing of de Funès with Coluche, a comic actor who had suddenly
achieved celebrity status through his stand-up comedy routines.
Over the next decade, Coluche would take over de Funès’ mantle as the most high-profile
and popular comedian in France, winning widespread affection and support when he chose
to run against François Mitterand in the 1981 presidential election and then founding
the charity Restos du coeur. Coluche’s success would doubtless have continued
were it not for his tragic death in a road accident in 1986.
Curiously, the role played by Coluche in L’Aile ou la cuisse was originally intended
for another popular comic actor, Pierre Richard, but he turned the part down.
Although Coluche and de Funès are poles apart in their approach to comedy, they
work together amazingly well – there is no sense of rivalry which is noticeable in some
of the other famous de Funès star pairings.
Shortly before making this film, de Funès suffered a heart attack, and the effect
of this is a noticeable change in his style of comedy – much gentler, more subtle than
previously. He is still just as effective, particularly when his character adopts
various disguises (such as a sweet old lady or a camp American tourist). Coluche
provides the physical comedy which de Funès was presumably no longer up to, although
he does also get his fair share of witty one-liners. The comic situations
are perhaps not as memorable as in some of de Funès other comic films, but L’Aile
ou la cuisse still has great entertainment value and some moments of blindingly superb
comedy (for example, the scene when Duchemin’s secretary ends up hanging from a chandelier).
Julien Guiomar plays the principal baddy, Tricatel, with an obvious relish, and the film
also features a welcome appearance by Philippe Bouvard, now best known as the host of
RTL’s long-running radio show Les Grosses têtes. At de Funès
insistence, Claude Gensac appears briefly in the film as Duchemin’s secretary, but she
is so heavily made-up that she is barely recognisable. Director Claude Zidi was
reluctant to cast Gensac because of her association with de Funès in the Gendarme
films, in which she played de Funès' long-suffering wife.
© James Travers 2002
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