Louis de Funès - Petanque picnic

From the classic 1964 movie, Le Gendarme de St Tropez.
Gendarme Cruchot (de Funès) wants to impress his new boss, sergeant major Gerber (Michel Galabru) during a petanque party with his deputies. As usual, it backfires.
Besides being funny as hell, it depicts so well how petanque can - and should - be played anywhere. A Sunday afternoon picnic in the woods? Bring out the boules.

La Partie de Boules (Pagnol)

I blogged it in 2007, but the clip kept vanishing, so last week I kindly asked the folks of Marcel-Pagnol.com if they could please add it to their online library.

Today I received a friendly message from Nicolas Pagnol, the maestro's very own grandson, to let me know that the classic fragment from the 1932 movie "Fanny" is now online - with English subtitles.
Though it depicts "boule Provençale", the prédecessor of pétanque, not much has changed in those past 77 years, in terms of expressions, manierisms, and trash talk!
Raimu, who plays Cesar, was a master in all.

"Merci beaucoup" on behalf of all the "boulistes du monde" for this timeless piece of art.

Read more about Marcel Pagnol, his life and work

Update 05/16/09: Jac Verheul wrote a great story about this scene on Boulistenaute. The article is in French, but the collection of postcards alone is worth a visit.

A boule in my soup!

So sorry there are no English subtitles, but this is the story line:

The customer calls the manager to complain about a boule in his soup.

The latter immediately checks if there's also a 'cochonnet' (target ball) in the pot which he feels would be a lot more dangerous. None to be found. His dramatic description of what an ingested cochonnet can do to one's innards leads the customer to think he actually did swallow one. But the manager puts him at ease: because if that were the case, the gentleman would have had other priorities than to make a scene about a harmless boule, like a spoiled child. He carries on and on to the point where the hapless customer, relieved, turns all apologetic about having had the balls to complain about such a trivial occurrence, a harmless boule. 

He actually refuses to have the soup replaced...

Last phrase by the manager: "Quel métier!" as in "Look at what you have to endure in this profession!" 

The scene is from TV Palace, a popular 1988 comedy series on France's CanalPlus about absurd happenings in a fancy hotel.

Stop staring!

A classic scene from the 1978 comedy "Je suis timide, mais je me soigne", where Robert Castel makes a stink about Pierre Richard watching him when he's ready to shoot. In the eyes, to boot.
"He breaks my arm" he claims. Even after they ask the guy to move away. It goes from bad to worse: at the end he cannot even stand ànybody watching him. And misses every shot.
As usual with Provençal players, even if you don't understand the words, body language and volume are more than adequate to catch the drift.



At one stage a player remarks that Castel will suffer a "nervooze brêkdown", and that there's 400,000 at stake. Even in "anciens francs" not a negligible amount!

Pierre Richard - meanwhile 74 and still very active - will appear later this year in "King Guillaume", a comedy about William the Conqueror.

Pagnol & boules

The other day I mentioned French writer Marcel Pagnol. The motion pictures Jean de Florette and its sequel Manon des Sources were based on his novels.
I just found the famous scene from his 1932 movie "Fanny", when a Marseille tram has to await the end of a boules game. The "capitaine" shoots and wins, but César - in colorful language loaded with hyperbole - disputes the win claiming he took one, if not two steps too many.
The rest of the 3:38 clip is another argument over who is the biggest liar in town but it ends in total harmony over a glass of pastis.

Update 2009-04-07
Clip was deleted. See new post.