“La Grande vadrouille” is one of the most popular French comedies of all time. On the occasion of its rebroadcast this evening on France 2, we are going to check if you still remember the adventures of Bourvil and Louis de Funès.
Only a year after the success of Corniaud, released at the cinema in 1965, the winning trio Bourvil-de Funès-Gérard Oury reunited for what would become one of the most popular French comedies of all time: La Grande vadrouille.
The film begins with an English plane shot down by the Germans above Paris. The three pilots then parachute and land in different places in the capital. They are helped by two French civilians, a conductor and a house painter who agree to take them to the free zone: they thus become, despite themselves, actors in the Resistance.
On the occasion of the rebroadcast of this classic this evening on France 2, let's check if the film is still fresh in your memory with these nine questions. Be careful, the last two could well deprive you of the Perfect!
DID YOU KNOW?
A historic success
With its 17,267,000 spectators, La Grande vadrouille, released in December 1966, was for a long time number 1 at the French box office. It was not until 1998, and Titanic's 22,295,045 admissions to date, that the record was broken. Gérard Oury's film remained the biggest public success in the history of French cinema for a long time until the releases of Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis in 2008 (20,489,303 admissions) and Intouchables in 2011 (19,503,038 entries).
Father and daughter
La Grande vadrouille marks the debut of Danièle Thompson, the daughter of Gérard Oury, as a screenwriter. Subsequently, she co-wrote all of her father's films until Vanille Strawberry, in 1989. She directed her first film, La Bûche, in 1999.
Ending change
Originally, it was a question for Gérard Oury to end the film with a scene in which Bourvil and Louis de Funès ski across the Pyrenees with the aim of reaching Spain. But this idea was abandoned because it was too expensive due to the snow. That being said, the scene with the gliders, which was retained, was still produced at a high cost.
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