| The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob | |
|---|---|
Poster for the US release |
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| Directed by | Gérard Oury |
| Produced by | Bertrand Javal |
| Starring | Louis de Funès Suzy Delair Marcel Dalio Claude Giraud Claude Piéplu Renzo Montagnani Henri Guybet Miou-Miou |
| Music by | Vladimir Cosma |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Editing by | Albert Jurgenson |
| Release date(s) | 18 October 1973 |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (French: Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob) is a 1973 French comedy film directed by Gérard Oury, starring Louis de Funès and Claude Giraud.
Rabbi Jacob (Marcel Dalio) is one of the most loved rabbis of New York. One day, the French side of his family, the Schmolls, invite him to celebrate the bar mitzvah of the young David. Rabbi Jacob boards a plane to leave America for his birthland of France after more than 30 years of American life. His young friend Rabbi Samuel comes with him.
In Normandy, the rich businessman Victor Pivert (Louis de Funès) is also on his way; his daughter (Miou-Miou) will be married the next day. Pivert is a dreadful man: bad-tempered, rude and a bigot, with a well-honed racism against blacks, Jews, and pretty much all foreigners. He and his driver, Salomon (Henri Guybet), have a car accident in which Pivert's car (carrying a speed boat) flips upside-down into a lake. When Salomon, who is Jewish, refuses to help because Shabbat has just begun, Pivert fires him, much to Salomon's content.
Arab revolutionist leader Mohamed Larbi Slimane (Claude Giraud) is kidnapped by killers who are working for his country's government. The team, led by Colonel Farès, takes him by night to an empty bubble gum factory... the same place where Victor Pivert goes to find assistance. Pivert involuntarily helps Slimane to flee, leaving two killers' corpses behind them. The police, alerted by Salomon, find the bodies and accuse Pivert of the crime.
The next day, Slimane forces Pivert to go to Orly airport to catch a plane to Slimane's country (if the revolution succeeds, he will become Prime Minister). However, they are followed by a number of people: the jealous Germaine, Pivert's wife, who thinks her husband is going to leave her for another woman; Farès and the killers; and the police commissioner Andréani (Claude Piéplu), a zealous and stupid cop who imagines that Pivert is the new Al Capone.
Trying to conceal his and Pivert's identities, Slimane attacks two rabbis in the toilets, stealing their clothes and shaving their beards and their payot. The disguises are perfect, and they are mistaken for Rabbi Jacob and Rabbi Samuel by the Schmoll family. The only one who recognizes Pivert (and Slimane) behind the disguise is Salomon, his former driver, who just happens to be a Schmoll nephew. But Pivert and Slimane are able to keep their identity secret and even manage to hold a sermon in Hebrew, thanks to the polylingual Slimane (who is deeply gutted, of course).
After a few misunderstandings, Commissioner Andréani and his two inspectors are mistaken by the Jews for terrorists, attempting to kill Rabbi Jacob. The real Rabbi Jacob arrives at Orly, where no one is waiting for him any more. He is mistaken for Victor Pivert by the police, then by Farès and his killers (both times in a painful way for his long beard).
There is a chaotic, but sweeping happy ending:
The film is widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of French comedy, and has become a cult film. It is also seen as one of the best socially-aware films, as the topic of the film (racism) is actually very serious. It contains funny (but clever) musings about a multicultural society and also delivers a powerful statement in favor of tolerance and understanding. The handshake between Slimane and Salomon towards the end of the movie (despite their differences, the Jew helped the Muslim) is a beautifully understated mark of understanding, full of reason.