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Les Sous-doués
1980 Comedy
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Credits
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Director: Claude Zidi
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Script: Michel Fabre, Didier Kaminka, Claude Zidi
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Photo: Paul Bonis
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Music: Bob Brault
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Cast: Michel Galabru (Le commissaire),
Maria Pacôme (Lucie Jumaucourt),
Daniel Auteuil (Bébel),
Philippe Taccini (Julien),
Tonie Marshall (Catherine Jumaucourt),
Hubert Deschamps (Léon Jumaucourt),
Raymond Bussières (Gaston),
Georges Anderson (Le père de Togo),
Féodor Atkine (Le père de MC 2),
Henri Attal (Mohammed),
Gaëtan Bloom (Gaëtan),
Richard Bohringer (Le pion)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 92 min
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Aka: The Under-Gifted
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Summary
The Cours Louis XIV, a small college in Versailles, has acquired a notorious reputation
and attracts only the least able of students, as the constant steam of exam failures testify.
The headmistress, Madame Jumaucourt, decides enough is enough and institutes a new regime
to ensure things change for the better. Her latest set of hopeless students are
unimpressed by constant surveillance of their lessons, smoke detectors in the toilets
and physical brutality at the hands of the sadistic gym instructor. However, their
scheme to get their own back only lands them in deeper trouble. Arrested for blowing
up their school with a bomb, the students are given one last chance: work hard to pass
their end-of-term exam or else go straight to prison...
Review
What it lacks in artistic merit and originality, Les Sous-doués just about
makes up for in visual jokes and comic momentum. Like many of Claude Zidi’s films,
it achieves what it sets out to do, which is simply to entertain. Admittedly some
of the comic situations are laboured and repetitive, but there are some delightfully funny
moments and, overall it makes an entertaining - albeit intellectually barren - piece of
Gallic cinema. The magnificent Michel Galabru puts in a typically faultless
comic turn, whilst a fresh-faced Daniel Auteuil starts to make his mark, easily outshining
his young co-stars. The popularity of this film (now regarded as a cult classic)
resulted in an equally zany sequel: Les
Sous-doués en vacances.
© James Travers 2003
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