(Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: col 104m
Director: Philippe de Broca
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Ursula Andress, Jean Rochefort
Synopsis:
Cruising with his prospective in-laws in the far east, a billionaire succumbs to boredom and financial ruination. So he takes out an insurance policy, then a contract on his own life, and almost immediately falls in love and changes his mind. But reversing the contract does not prove so easy.
Review:
Whether as homage to the imaginative hi-jinks of silent cinema (it's based on a book by Jules Verne) or in imitation of contemporary follies elsewhere (cf. The Great Race), de Broca's exhausting chase movie is like a Tintin adventure in its slapstick, or Dick Lester's Help, with Belmondo in the Ringo Starr role. It's colourful and energetic enough, and the stunts are extraordinary, but alas it produces more yawns than smiles. Rochefort plays it like an English majordome, and Andress proves herself quite the comedienne.
(Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: col 104m
Director: Philippe de Broca
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Ursula Andress, Jean Rochefort
Synopsis:
Cruising with his prospective in-laws in the far east, a billionaire succumbs to boredom and financial ruination. So he takes out an insurance policy, then a contract on his own life, and almost immediately falls in love and changes his mind. But reversing the contract does not prove so easy.
Review:
Whether as homage to the imaginative hi-jinks of silent cinema (it's based on a book by Jules Verne) or in imitation of contemporary follies elsewhere (cf. The Great Race), de Broca's exhausting chase movie is like a Tintin adventure in its slapstick, or Dick Lester's Help, with Belmondo in the Ringo Starr role. It's colourful and energetic enough, and the stunts are extraordinary, but alas it produces more yawns than smiles. Rochefort plays it like an English majordome, and Andress proves herself quite the comedienne.
