Anyone living in the Paris region and working far from where they live will be able to sympathize with and appreciate pour Louis Velle's plight in this film. Whilst public transport within Paris "intra muros" is relatively rapid, when you live in outlying suburbs and have to get into Paris or worse, to another outlying suburb, things become nightmarish. Louis Velle is a bank employee in the western Paris suburb of Vaucresson and is quite happy working locally and going to work on foot. One day, a computer decides to transfer him to a branch of the bank in central Paris, and our friend, not having a driving licence is obliged to take public transport, which all but kills him, he therefore eventually decides to invest in an automobile ( his brother-in-law is a motor dealer ) but first needs to take and pass his driving test, no laughing matter when the instructor is ( the now much regretted ) Jacques Legras. Driving lessons, bedding down in Paris, quiproquos in profusion, all go to make a very entertaining film for all those suburbanites or "banlieusards" who die a little bit every day in public transports. I also loved Pierre Tornade ( his nose is something else ) as the bank director who just cannot comprehend Velle's behaviour. I have had the film for years on VHS but it was issued on DVD some months back in France together with another of Velle's films "Les murs ont des oreilles". Unfortunately there are no subtitles and the picture quality does not seem to have been restored, but there is an interesting interview with Velle today ( who naturally appears much older than in the film - and who funnily enough relates his real life experiences when passing his driving test ). There is also an appearance by Claude Chabrol in the film as the concierge of a seedy hotel. The haircuts, clothes, cars in the film all appear very dated today as it was made in the seventies but the problems with traffic jams, train times and stress are today just as relevant as ever !
Review of Le permis de conduire
