THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB

France, 1973, 100 minutes, Colour.
Louis de Funes, Suzy Delair, Marcel Dalio.
Directed by Louis de Funes.

Farce can seem too silly for laughs or just catch the mood with the right blend of timing, wit and the enjoyably ludicrous. And a laughing audience helps a lot. While many may not have enjoy this comedy, it is farce, very funny in its way, with its madcap chases, mixed identities, coincidental mishaps, parodies of other films, including hero and villains coated in bubble-gum syrup like Creatures from a Lagoon, and satire on racial and religious bigotry: black and white, Jews, Arabs, French, Judaism and Catholicism. French comedian Louis de Funes, star of several similar French farces, is able to carry off the hilariously impossible with conviction.

1. How appealing was this comedy? For whom was made? The impact on French audiences? On international audiences? Different impressions? Why?

2. How French was the comedy? How successful was it, in characters, situations, dialogue, exaggerations, farce, parodies of such films as The African Queen and Science Fiction Monsters?

3. How important were the race and religion questions in this comedy? Insight into Jewish and Catholic relationships? Interrelationships between Arabs, Jews, French? The black wedding and the insight into relationships between black and white? What was the effect of portraying the serious issues in comedy? Can serious messages be conveyed via comedy? In this case?

4. The success of the opening atmosphere with New York? The Jewish atmosphere in New York, sentiments Jewish feelings the irony of the taxi-drivers comments, the carrying of the car to the plane, the impact of the plane ride and the preparation for the arrival in Paris?

5. How well did this contrast with Pivert? How humorous a character was he, a caricature? All that is bad and bigoted and selfish in white Frenchmen? His selfish driving as a symbol of this? His self-preoccupation? The irony of going into the river and floating?

6. His contact with the mixed-race wedding? His irate attitudes towards the bride and groom? The humour of the car back-firing and his being mistaken for black?

7. The importance of the Catholic-Jewish? relationship with Pivert and Solomon? How did this prepare for the later events and the disguise? How did this change with the presentation of Hebrew Joy, the ceremonies, the dance? The growing tolerance on the part of Pivert? How well did the film communicate the real Jewish atmosphere in Paris? The synagogue, the Bar Mitzvah?

8. How important was the theme of Arabs, Jews and French? The personality of Slimane and the pursuit and capture? The seriousness of his being tortured? The pursuit? The dangers? The ironies of the happy ending especially for pursuers?

9. The humour of Mrs Pivert and the dentist scenes, adding the touch of farce, chase, complications of plot? How successful? The woman in the cupboard?

10. How enjoyable were the sequences in the gum factory? Why were they so funny? Situation-comedy? The parody of the monsters? The equality of everyone In gum?

11. How successful were the car and the bike chases? What did add to the atmosphere of the film?

12. The humour of the situations at the airport? The real Rabbi Jacob? The disguise? The complications and the humour? The humour of the Jewish mix-ups and the family? Pivert rising to the occasion, praise of the Jews?

13. The satire at the expense of the police? How humorous?

14. The gathering momentum for the conclusion? The way that everybody arrived including the helicopter? The ecumenical tone of the happy ending? Could there any other ending to a film like this?

15. Was the film funny? Why was it successfully funny? What Were the techniques that were principally successful?