Jo

A French comedy built on a murder. Antoine Brisebard writes plays. His work goes well but he has a problem: he has been paying a blackmailer for years and the sum keeps rising. The man holds something about his wife's past. Brisebard makes a decision. He has a new room built onto his house and plans to bury the blackmailer's body in the foundation. He prepares it with a playwright's care and thinks of every detail. The man arrives and it does not go as planned. From there the film becomes a comedy of hiding a body: guests who turn up, a curious neighbour, the builders and an inspector who comes to investigate. Brisebard's real trouble is not the murder but that someone keeps walking into the room at the wrong moment. The humour rests on Louis de Funès and his tempo: the faces, the sudden bursts of rage and the instant recovery into a smile. The source is a stage play and it shows; the narrative takes place almost entirely in one house. Claude Gensac and Michel Galabru are in the cast. Jean Girault directed; he worked with de Funès for years. An enjoyable production for anyone who likes classic French comedy and single-location farce. For a viewer wanting something new, the film runs in familiar patterns.