Le Grand Amour

Pierre Etaix's 1969 film follows Pierre, who runs a small factory in the provinces. He married the owner's daughter, took over the business, and fifteen years later has realised his life has become entirely predictable. The arrival of a new secretary sets him dreaming. The film's known sequence is the one in which beds travel down the road like cars. The dreams Pierre has at night are realised visually and logic is abandoned entirely. Etaix came from the silent comedy tradition, and the physical gags do far more work than the dialogue. Etaix's films could not be shown for decades because of a legal dispute, and returned to circulation only in the early 2010s. That is why he was little known for so long. Who it's for: those who like the French comic tradition and films built on visual gags. Who it's not for: viewers troubled by women appearing only as male fantasy; the film places that at its centre.