The Annuity

The year 1930. Doctor Léon Galipeau examines his fifty nine year old patient Louis Martinet and reaches a conclusion: this man has two years at most. He shares it with his brother Émile. The family sees an opportunity: they will buy Martinet's fine house in Saint-Tropez on a life annuity. That is, they will pay him a sum each month and the house will be theirs when he dies. The contract is signed. Martinet does not die. He improves instead, puts on weight, starts swimming, and the years pass. The Galipeau family goes on paying every month. Pierre Tchernia directs. Michel Serrault plays Martinet; Michel Galabru, Claude Brasseur and Rosy Varte are in the cast. René Goscinny wrote the screenplay; he is known as the writer of the Asterix comics and was a friend of Tchernia's. Tchernia worked with Goscinny on the scripts of his first two films. It opened on 19 January 1972 and runs a hundred and two minutes. The narrative covers the war years as well; the occupation and its aftermath are told through the same contract. The source of the humour is waiting; the comedy comes out of a death that does not occur and the film never softens it. Michel Serrault plays the character from sixty to ninety. Who it is for: viewers who like classic French comedy and black humour. Who it is not for: the humour is cold, the pace slow, and the subject may repel some.