The Tribulations of a Chinese Man in China : do the three pass through Broca?
Philippe de Broca directed for the first time Jean Paul Belmondo In Cartridge (1962). A great first for the duo that attracted more than 3.6 million viewers. Enough to motivate the director to return to the spotlight only two years later The Man from Rio (1964). With 4.8 million viewers, the adventure comedy was the director’s biggest hit (before… Cartridge). From that moment on, a third collaboration seemed obvious and it happened immediately with The Tribulations of a Chinese Man in China (1965).
In it, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Arthur Léglise, a billionaire who has everything, but no longer has the zest for life. While his suicide attempts continue to fail, during a trip to Hong Kong he learns that he is ruined. Mr. Goh, an old friend of Arthur, convinces him to take out a life insurance policy for the benefit of his fiancée and himself. Arthur then becomes the target of assassins, but his desire to die will disappear after his meeting Alexandrina (Ursula Andress)an ethnologist who finances her trip around the world by doing striptease. Together and accompanied by Leon (Jean Rochefort), Arthur’s faithful valet, they will try to clarify the mystery surrounding these attempted murders.
“There was everything and above all too much”
To achieve the same success as The Man from RioPhilippe de Broca then returned to adventure comedy. He bet on big names, and tried to exploit the craze of the time for James Bond visiting Ursula Andress. The actress had become an icon since then James Bond 007 vs Doctor N (1962)making a splash by emerging from the sea in a white bikini. One of the most famous passages in cinema, which Broca has taken up without embarrassment for his film, placing the actress in the same outfit on a deserted beach. The director will later say about it:
I took the most beautiful girl in the world, the most charming actor, the most exotic landscapes and added more to the hat.
Unfortunately, The Tribulations of a Chinese Man in China failed to attract as much as The Man from Rioaccumulating “only” 2.7 million subscriptions. Philippe de Broca took full responsibility for this, declaring that he didn’t like this film very much because “there was everything, and above all too much“.
Ursula Andress seduced by Jean-Paul Belmondo’s humor
However, The Tribulations of a Chinese Man in China at least it worked out for its two stars. A beautiful actress, a beautiful actor and all the conditions for the magic to happen. That’s exactly what happened, as the book tells. Belmondo: The book knocks, knocks, badaboum! by Guillaume Evin. Although, according to Philippe de Broca, the two stars”they didn’t talk to each other“at the beginning of filming, a strong passion soon broke out between Belmondo and Ursula Andress. Moreover, their love story lasted, as they did not break up for seven years. For her part, the first Bond Girl declared in 1987 to the magazine Photo :
I’ve always liked to laugh. But I think Jean-Paul Belmondo made me laugh more than anyone else. That’s how he seduced me.
To make people laugh, Jean-Paul Belmondo was a specialist and did not spare himself on the set. During The Tribulations of a Chinese Man in Chinahe had fun, for example, at taking a Hong Kong hotel elevator completely naked“the trousers neatly folded on the arm“, and greeting customers on every floor. The one who went swimming in the hotel pool was also still naked.
Source: Cine Serie
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