Tête à claques (1982)
Directed by Francis Perrin

Film Review

Tête à claques was the first of four films that the prolific actor of stage and screen Francis Perrin wrote and directed in the early-to-mid 1980s.  Although the films were not badly received in their day (the first two drew an audience of almost two million), none has stood the test of time particularly well. Perrin's idea of comedy is dated, and yet his skill as an actor and imagination as a writer more than make up for his deficiencies as a director.  It is fair to say that Perrin's screen career pales in comparison with his stage work, for which he is most revered. You wonder how such a talented and versatile actor could have made so modest an impact on the cinema.  Some people are just better suited for the theatre.

With the exception of the last film he wrote, Le Débutant (1986) (which he co-directed with Daniel Janneau), Perrin's films adhere to the same basic formula.  They are light romantic comedies - with a smattering of anarchic fun - in which a social misfit discovers love and is thereupon drawn into a bizarre series of adventures before he finally wins his soul mate.  They are effectively modern fairy tales.  Of these three films, Tête à claques is probably the best - partly because Perrin does not allow his imagination and cinephilia to run away with themselves (as they would increasingly do in later films), but mainly because the lead actor is partnered with Fanny Cottençon, an actress of comparable charisma and ability.

By the standards of its time, Tête à claques is a reasonably entertaining comedy.  In the late '70s, early '80s, most French film comedies were pretty dire and many were essentially low grade exploitation movies, profiting from the relaxation of censorship rules to lure audiences with gratuitous bouts of female nudity.  Perrin's films are refreshingly restrained in this respect and they make good family viewing, without being overly silly or obviously child-oriented (even if they feature a cute child actor, Antoine Bessis).  Things tend to go somewhat awry when Perrin tries to bring real sentiment into his films (it always looks forced or phoney), and the occasional bursts of woman beating (prevalent in this era of French cinema) lend a distasteful air to the proceedings, particularly when the woman in question is unable to hit back at her aggressor and meekly accepts what the dominant male inflicts on her.

Perrin is as much a creature of his time as his film are - chauvinistic, superficial and self-conscious, but gentle and charming in spite of all that.  Tête à claques is hardly a classic - the plot is all over the place, the characters are either comic book caricatures or weird beyond belief (there's a son who is obsessed with killing himself, a levitating hippie, a madcap lawyer who could well be an escaped lunatic and a mother-in-law who looks as if she eats babies for breakfast).  Not all the gags work but many do and there's much fun to be had watching Perrin and Cottençon trying to extricate themselves from the sticky situations they get themselves into.  If ever you find yourselves stuck in doors on a rainy afternoon with nothing to do, Tête à claques will help you pass an agreeable afternoon - and at the end of it you will either love Francis Perrin or hate him, assuming that your attention has not been entirely monopolised by the furiously feisty Fanny Cottençon.

Film Synopsis

Alex Berthier is thirty, divorced and lives in a small apartment with his 10-year-old son Bruno.  He writes songs that no one wants to buy and just about scrapes by on what he can earn as a taxi driver.  When a customer leaves her bag behind in his cab, Alex feels bound to drop it off at the nearest police station, but as he does so he is mistaken for a member of a gang of hippies that have been arrested for taking drugs in a place public.  Handcuffed to Sandrine Crispin-Vautier, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alex goes on the run but is later captured by the police and sent to prison.  On his release, Alex is in no mood to renew his acquaintance with the troublesome Sandrine, even though they are by now deeply in love with one another.  Alex is hopping mad when he learns that Sandrine has sold one of his songs to a record company - it has apparently been the hit of the summer!  Sandrine finally talks Alex into marrying her so that he can regain custody of his son, who, after Alex's arrest, has been placed in the care of his hideous stepmother.  Part of the deal is that Alex should go to work for Sandrine's father, but he soon grows tired of his new job and his new life...