Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

I wanted to but couldn't!

Absolutely Fantastic

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

For the fine mix of humor, costumes and performances. and for the seductive manner to give to musketeer era a special charm. a film about power and sins and remembering the flavor of popular tales. the key of succes - the admirable meet between de Funes and Montand. love and trahison and revenge plans and a smart end . an easy comedy, off course. but a remarkable one. for its force of dialogues and gags and the sweet chain of adventures who, not being a moral lesson , represents a subtle pledge for the beauty of French classic comedy.

Maybe I'm stupid, but I had little to no idea what was going on during the first half of the movie. It sort of reminded me of the presumably spaghetti Western, My Name is Nobody. In that film I also kept telling myself, "Oh, this is where I'm supposed to laugh." There is nothing subtle or intellectual about this movie. It's just one slapstick gag after another. If I want that I'll watch The Three Stooges on TV. At least there, the context is clear, I guess this is what you get w 4-5 countries involved, each w its own tastes. Whenever anyone gets in trouble here he gets sent to the desert, apparently just a few minutes away, to be whipped into pushing a wheel that pulls water from the ground, for some guy on the other end to drink up. Ho, ho, is that funny or what? And the mistaken-identity bit. What originality! Like we've never seen that before. I didn't even begin to laugh through the whole thing. I kept thinking, there must be more. Then it ended. How a respectable actor like Yves Montand got involved in this silly, absurd slapstick is beyond me.

One of the funniest comedies made for the French cinema was inspired by none other than Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas". The film served its purpose to delight and amuse, as the unorthodox pairing of Yves Montand, one of the biggest stars in France, and Louis De Funes, a comic genius who is seen at his best in the film, were directed by Gerard Oury. The screenplay was written by Daniele Thompson, the director's daughter, Marcel Julian and Mr. Oury.The result is a sort of what feels like a French Western filmed mostly in Spain, the locale where many other pictures of the genre were shot. The action involve a corrupt tax collector Don Salluste Bazan and his servant, the rascal Blaze, out to create hell for a master whose only passion is about how much is he going to chisel out from the royal coffers. "Delusions of Grandeur" is one of the funniest films of that period. The wonderful Yves Montand shows his versatility as Blaze, a resourceful man, whose only purpose in life is to expose his deceitful employer. A sort of Robin Hood, if you will, who gave back to the exploited folks the tribute they were asked to pay the crown. Louis De Funes, a fine comic actor, shows the actor in an inspired role, who in spite of being so mean, manages to make the viewer laughs throughout the movie.Michel Polnareff's music reminds us of some of Ennio Morricone's compositions for those notorious "Spaghetti Westerns" where he provided the music. Henri Decae takes us all over Spain to show us great scenery as well as fancy interiors as befitting the court of a Spanish painted by Diego Velazquez, perhaps.

"Delusion of grandeur" is a brilliant parody, full of amazing inventions, inspirated by "Ruy Blas", the part written by Victor Hugo. Louis de Funes, Alice Sapritch and Yves Montand create an everending movement, a splendid dynamic of humour : they are dign of the best artists of burlesque.Moreover, the music composed by Michel Polnareff is one of the most expressive illustration composed for a sophisticated and spectacular bubble of happyness. In fact, Gerard Oury, the laughing emperor of french comedies and his daughter, Daniele Thompson, had created a splendid miracle : they had permitted, that spanish frenzy and classical elegance had been associated, to offer a fascinating panorama of slapstick country. Yes, "Grandeur" stays the best word to describe this strange alchimy, which catchs the ludicrous vanities of human being, to transform them into jewels of non-sense. "Il est l'or, Monsignor"...