Word: rappeneau
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Katherine Hepburn wrestled with her little leopard in Bringing Up Baby. The red gas stove is certainly milked for all its comic absurdity, yet Yves Montand cannot do with it half of what Buster Keaton did with a simple pair of bicycle handlebars in Sherlock Jr. Director Jean Paul Rappeneau seems to understand the basic atmospheric conditions of screwball humor, but he fails to enliven his combination of characters and incidents with any modern twists or new routines. He does not realize that this kind of fun cannot be created by haphazardly mixing together elements that worked well for Philippe...
...result, the dialogue in Les Sauvages is not tight enough, the chase scenes ramble on and on and the characters seem to be thrown together rather than playing off each other for maximum comic peaks. More disappointing, however, is the fact that Rappeneau has failed to correct the sexist treatment of women so common in such comedies. Embodied in such catch-all phrases as "charming" or "crazy" lies a blatant sexist attitude which suggests that women wearing nothing but loosely buttoned men's shirts three sizes too large for them, or women who irresponsibly knock over lamps, smash holes...