This is a movie with a VERY checkered past : a)various options were entertained with regard to length and content and b)the original material was badly damaged by long-term storage problems, which necessitated extensive repairs by digital and other means.
I remember watching this comedy as a young child. I get the impression that it was longer, funnier and smoother than it is now - but I could be mistaken, given the fact that so much water has flowed through the Dijle.
Even in its restored version there is an episodic and somewhat random structure to the movie : it is a series of four unrelated (or but loosely related) vignettes. I'm especially fond of the last vignette, "In the woods", where four people with the best of intentions - a hunter, a farmer and two tourists - try to enjoy a nicely bucolic landscape. Sadly enough the area is so small that they keep bumping into each other. (Watch out for the running gag with the fence.)
Also notable is an earlier scene, worthy of "La cantatrice chauve", where a man goes to visit some friends of his. One expects the normal chitchat - how are you, what have you been up to, this apple pie is delicious, your wife is such a great cook - but in fact the friends speak only in publicity slogans. It's a funny (and unexpectedly savage)comment on the various lies and enormities used to lure customers or deceive consumers.
I remember watching this comedy as a young child. I get the impression that it was longer, funnier and smoother than it is now - but I could be mistaken, given the fact that so much water has flowed through the Dijle.
Even in its restored version there is an episodic and somewhat random structure to the movie : it is a series of four unrelated (or but loosely related) vignettes. I'm especially fond of the last vignette, "In the woods", where four people with the best of intentions - a hunter, a farmer and two tourists - try to enjoy a nicely bucolic landscape. Sadly enough the area is so small that they keep bumping into each other. (Watch out for the running gag with the fence.)
Also notable is an earlier scene, worthy of "La cantatrice chauve", where a man goes to visit some friends of his. One expects the normal chitchat - how are you, what have you been up to, this apple pie is delicious, your wife is such a great cook - but in fact the friends speak only in publicity slogans. It's a funny (and unexpectedly savage)comment on the various lies and enormities used to lure customers or deceive consumers.