A young man is sensitive, romantic, emotionally rich. Sadly enough he is married to a cold woman who only lives for her television set. Since his wife refuses to give him a divorce, and since he is too nice to push her into the Seine, it looks as though this unenviable situation is going to last forever. But then the young man has a glorious idea : what if he used his considerable professional skills as a restorer in order to forge official documents ? After all, documents testifying to matters such as celibacy, marriage or widowhood are just pieces of paper...
"Les compagnons de la marguerite" is a funny comedy with a very individual style - unruly, anarchic, poetic, dreamlike. Not all the jokes and gags land, but those that do are great. The plot deals with a young man who has found a way in which to undermine the traditional conception of marriage. His antics attract the attention of the police (depicted mainly as a bunch of outmoded and pompous incompetents), but at the same time he becomes the idol of a growing segment of the population. For who wouldn't like to be freed from an unsatisfactory relationship, with a minimum of fuss and bother ? If you play your cards right, the neighbors might even fail to notice that Mrs. Johnson nr. 1 has been replaced with a Mrs. Johnson nr. 2...
Nowadays the material feels less edgy than it must have felt anno 1967. However, a number of satirical arrows still find their target, especially with regard to marital (un)happiness and societal hypocrisy. The idea of a group of daisy-wearing revolutionaries worshipping their trailblazing hero is pretty funny too.
Wait for the line about Rabelais - pure gold.
In the movie you can see a very young Claude Rich at work in a comic role, with his usual otherworldly aplomb. If you'd like to see him in a far more serious role, this time as a mature artist, check out his tour-de-force duel with Claude Brasseur in "Le souper" (1992).
"Les compagnons de la marguerite" is a funny comedy with a very individual style - unruly, anarchic, poetic, dreamlike. Not all the jokes and gags land, but those that do are great. The plot deals with a young man who has found a way in which to undermine the traditional conception of marriage. His antics attract the attention of the police (depicted mainly as a bunch of outmoded and pompous incompetents), but at the same time he becomes the idol of a growing segment of the population. For who wouldn't like to be freed from an unsatisfactory relationship, with a minimum of fuss and bother ? If you play your cards right, the neighbors might even fail to notice that Mrs. Johnson nr. 1 has been replaced with a Mrs. Johnson nr. 2...
Nowadays the material feels less edgy than it must have felt anno 1967. However, a number of satirical arrows still find their target, especially with regard to marital (un)happiness and societal hypocrisy. The idea of a group of daisy-wearing revolutionaries worshipping their trailblazing hero is pretty funny too.
Wait for the line about Rabelais - pure gold.
In the movie you can see a very young Claude Rich at work in a comic role, with his usual otherworldly aplomb. If you'd like to see him in a far more serious role, this time as a mature artist, check out his tour-de-force duel with Claude Brasseur in "Le souper" (1992).
