Pierre Richard’s surprise
Who could have predicted that this film, which Gaumont initially did not want, and certainly not with Pierre Richard, would become one of the most cult films in history French cinema? In December 1972, when it was released in theaters The tall blonde with a black shoe in particular The Scoumune with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Disney’s 101 Dalmatiansthe competition is tough and the public is not necessarily waiting for Yves Robert’s new film, of which he made the precedent Clerambard it was a failure. But the magic happens immediately, transmitted by Pierre Richard extraordinary in the title role.
The head of the French secret service, Louis Toulouse (Jean Rochefort), is compromised by his deputy Milan (Bernard Blier) in a double agent relationship. This AC Milan-led scheme aims to discredit Toulouse in order to take their place. But Toulouse, having discovered Milan’s plans, organizes a Machiavellian trap to bring down his deputy. For this reason he decides to use a stranger,
Laughter, commercial success and international recognition
The tall blonde with a black shoe it is a pure spy film, with its internal war within the secret services, its interrogations, the encounter with a “fatal” woman… In this type of cinema, modern, realistic and rather cold, Pierre Richard then brings the his madness, his body game worthy of that of Buster Keatonand a hilarious agility in offbeat conversations.
The hybridization of these two worlds, with a character of comic book which overturns the regulated and very serious world of James Bond, goes beyond expectations. The tall blonde with a black shoe is a great commercial success in France, with 3.47 million entries. Despite the initially unenthusiastic French reception, Yves Robert’s film was particularly appreciated abroad. It was a success in West Germany with 3 million viewers, where it was awarded a prize the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1973.
In the USA The tall blonde with a black shoe it is also particularly noted, where it stands out for the National Audit Council in the United States the same year – nominated in the Best Foreign Film of the Year category -.
Pierre Richard’s superstar
The actor Pierre Richard imposes a character on which cinema will develop other stories and other films. Best actor in the role of the character created by Francis Veber, the famous “François Pignon” or “François Perrin”, reprized in the sequel The return of the tall blondeso it offers variations with We will have seen it all, The toy AND The goat.
He became an international star with The tall blonde with a black shoePierre Richard thus sees the doors of Hollywood opening up, in particular for projects with Jerry Lewis AND Gene Wilder. Unfortunately, these projects are not realized, as the actor told it in 2013 :
“Jerry Lewis wanted to sign for three films with me. In the end he went to Philippe Clair! Gene Wilder adored me. Every time he came to Paris, we played tennis. He had written a film for both of us, “The Naked Lady”, which was amused by our resemblance. He was a psychoanalyst from Los Angeles, I was a French surgeon assigned to operate on a Middle Eastern emir, and there was a story of identity replacement with whom I went to Los Angeles Jean-Louis Livi, the my agent at the time, to sign the contract, we found ourselves in the middle of a studio strike. Most importantly, Gene’s cousin had just died and his best friend, Richard Pryor, was there in the hospital death, Gene said to me, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to do comedy anymore.”
Source: Cine Serie
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