Le Cerveau (1969)

	Also Known As: The Brain
	Year of first release: 1969
	Director: Gérard Oury (La Grande Vadrouille, Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob)
	Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo (Flic ou Voyou), Bourvil (La Grande Vadrouille), David Niven (The Pink Panther, The Guns of Navarone), Eli Wallach (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)
	Country: F, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 25.12.2016, 42" TV
Synopsis: The thief known as The Brain (Niven) plans to rob a train containing money from NATO. Anatole and Arthur (Bourvil & Belmondo), the latter freshly out of jail, have the same plan.
Review: Another classic French comedy I have seen many times in my youth, directed by one of the masters of the genre Gérard Oury, and starring the classic aging comedian Bourvil and the young action-comedian Belmondo. The story is pretty ambitious, but peppered with situations prone to humour and characters like Frankie (Wallach) over-protecting his sister, the impassable British David Niven and the naive Bourvil. That story is also well shot and not shy on stunts and large sets. The production may be a Franco-Italian one, I found that the movie contains an original mix of French (Cartesian) humour and British (absurd, second degree) one, a difference that I mentioned when reviewing the French TV-series Kaamelott. The movie is thus a succession of comic dialogs in French (Anatole and Arthur arguing), obviously staged comedy (the Italian Wallach loosing his woolen sweater) and more subtle British notes like the difference between the perfect robbery shown by The Brain in an elaborate cartoon and the actual robbery. That aspect is in fact what I appreciated and made me laugh most. The rest I found often over-exaggerated.
Rating: 5 /10