The Great Classic of French movie

In June 1944, Albert Quentin (Jean Gabin), a former marine in China, runs, with his wife Suzanne (Suzanne Flon) whom he met in La Bourboule, the Stella hotel in the village of Tigreville, on the Normandy coast near Deauville. .

He often lets himself drink too much, which brings him to nostalgia for his military youth lived on the Yang-Tsé-Kiang. During a bombardment in June 1944, he promises Suzanne not to drink any more if the hotel escapes destruction; promise kept.

Fifteen years later, arrives one evening Gabriel Fouquet (Jean-Paul Belmondo), young and restless man, publicist of his state. Fouquet drinks to erase the failure of his sentimental life with Claire who lives in Madrid, "travel" in Spain thanks to alcohol, and dream of bullfighting.

He comes to see his daughter Marie, a boarder in Tigreville, in a boarding house where Mrs. Victoria, the director, although French, speaks only English. The two men, who do not have "small wine or petty cooking", will experience two days of escape thanks to drunkenness, one in Spain and the other in China.

This will be the occasion for an a cappella duet on the famous song Nuits de Chine. The apotheosis of this drunkenness is reached with a "Dantesque" fireworks display on the beach.

Directed by Henri Verneuil

Screenplay Francois Boyer
Henry Verneuil
Michael Audiard

Main actors

John Gabin
John Paul Belmondo
Suzanne Flon
Noel Roquevert
Paul Franker

Country of production France

Genre Comedy Drama

Duration 105 minutes

Released 1962

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