54 years later, we’re still using this iconic film line to recall a great moment in French comedy

Louis de Funès is a comic reference, as evidenced by the 4.73 million French who once again enjoyed watching La Grande vadrouille broadcast on TF1 on 10 November. And if he works wonders against Burville, de Funes is also at his best in several solo films, including the famous Hibernate.

Hubert de Tartas loses his temper

Hibernatus is adapted from Jean Bernard-Luc’s vaudeville and directed by Edouard Molinaro, with whom de Funes had already filmed the Oscar three years earlier. The actor plays Hubert de Tartas, an industrialist who discovers that his wife’s grandfather, Paul Fournier, who was thought to have died at the age of 25, has been found frozen in a block of ice. He survived his “thaw” and doctors recommend living in a familiar environment in the early 1900s.

So we recreate the private mansion of Paul Fournier, who thinks he lives in the early 20th century, and slowly the latter wants to take over De Tarta’s business – which is actually owned by his wife, the granddaughter of Hibernate. A man – and begins to seduce Evelyn, Didier de Tarta’s fiancee.

After many compromises and feeling that the situation is out of control, Hubert is furious and decides to reveal the whole truth to “the man in winter”, he is not going to go easy on himself and, while the doctors tell him in film class that saying anything will kill poor Paul , Hubert decides to go to the anthology stage despite everything.

“Edme, Edme”!

Among the first revelations is clearly the actual date (1970), but above all the one he received for Mother Clementine. “His name isn’t Clementine, his name is Edme, Edme!”Everything is accompanied by a small polka step, betraying that Hubert is driven mad by this grotesque situation. A moment that will go down in the annals of comedy:

And all this for what? He does not believe a single word of the interlocutor’s long statement in winter and even calls to take him to a doctor. But when he turns on the TV, he realizes that Hubert has told him the stark truth.

Behind the scenes, the scene was an ordeal to film, as Edward Molinaro confided in the book Louis de Funes, Grimaces and Glory By Bertrand Dicalle, quoted Recreational television : “On the day when he was on the shooting schedule, we did some filming, but Louis was not really involved in it. After a while, he asked us to stop because he couldn’t find anything (… ) We all went home at three in the afternoon. “

“The next day we shot other scenes, De Funes shot the next day, and there, in a few shots, there was an explosion of genius. A moment of genius that will be remembered forever.