Some things I liked some I did not.

Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

Expected more

HIBERNATUS belongs to a series of popular comedies centered round Funès' crazy persona, and is one of the two or three Funès comedies I have seen in a movie theater. Funès' career has been very diverse and, of course, uneven. Some of Funès best known comedies are filmed plays—like HIBERNATUS, quite conventional and mildly amusing comedies, whose asset is not the inventiveness or originality of the script but the charm of the performers and Funès' wicked humor, his routine. Why pretend? These comedies are not Chaplin, Keaton, Fatty, Lloyd, Marx, Lemmon, Tati, Étaix, they're not marvelously funny or inspiring; they're not even Laurel and Hardy. They may serve to illustrate the comedy's descent into meaninglessness or at least vulgarity. If taken for what they are, these unpretentious bourgeois comedies offer some fun and are amusing. (An IMDb writer talks about 'present day French Cinema which seems incapable of making good comedy films such as it made in the sixties and seventies'—so others see differently the movie comedy's evolution ….) Take HIBERNATUS—it has a nice look of sex comedy—Funès' lust reinforced by the imposed abstinence, la _soubrette, etc..HIBERNATUS begins like a '60s updating of an old Sci—Fi idea—finding a person iced at the North Pole. The hibernated man is identified—and he's the grandfather of Funès' wife—though much younger, biologically, than she. The script has the tact to inspire this grandfather with filial love for his older granddaughter. Funès plays an wealthy irascible respectable bourgeois.Claude Gensac plays the bitchy Edmée, and she has been Funès partner in screen in many movies and more than any other actress—ten movies (of which three Gendarmes). The piquant Mrs. Claude Gensac and Funès have met in '52—in life, on stage and on screen.

Arctic expedition finds the frozen body of Paul Fournier in Greenland. He stayed in eternal cold for sixty five years and was brought to life in 1970. He is taken care by the family of his descendants and he believes that it is still 1905 and he had a riding accident after which he had developed some memory problems. By his doctor's request, to spare him the shock of waking up, the house he stays in and the streets surrounded it are redecorated to look like in the beginning of the 20th century. He does not know that the woman he believes his mother is his granddaughter and her polite but slightly hyper fiancée (De Funes) has been her husband for over twenty years. The movie belongs to Luis De Funes as all his comedies do. I'd like to name just a few - the trilogy of Fantômas movies where De Funes was energetic, bubbling with the mad ideas, clumsy and hilarious Commissar Juve; "La Grande vadrouille" (1966) where he shared the screen with another French legend, Bourvil, and "Oscar" (1967) which he simply stole with his performance. During his long career De Funes learned how to make every viewer in the audience laugh – not just laugh but almost die from laughing. While watching "Hibernatus" again after many years, I almost fall from the couch – my husband and our friends had more fun watching me than the movie.

For the second time director Edouard Molinaro and French comic star Louis De Funès worked together, after "Oscar" (1967).In 1969 a group of scientists discover a frozen body, which belongs to a young man of 1900. This man still lives and after many adventures his custody is granted to his family (Louis De Funès and his wife, who is...the granddaughter of the man!). For avoiding him the big shock of living at the end of the Sixties, all his family dress and behave as if they were at the beginning of the century! The comedy shows again the qualities of De Funès, who was unique with grimaces and nervous tics. The French actor was like a clown, many children and adults adored him."Hibernatus" is a nice movie, although a little too pretentious -De Funès made better films-. The story is a bit absurd, but the picture is still watchable for his leading actor.

Louis de Funès was one of the funniest French comic actors and none of those on the scene today can even compare with him. Many of his films made in the 1960's and 70's are evergreens of French comedy and remain popular even today. Hibernatus is one of the best, together with Rabbi Jacob, La Grande Vadrouille and Le Corniaud (The Sucker). The script lively, the film only 78 mins long and Claude Gensac as his long standing "ma biche !" is magnificent. The film is basically about De Funes's wife's grandfather who is found frozen in the ice and comes back to life with his family in 1969 ! All surroundings are made to look oldy-worldy so that he may think he is still in 1905. All this gives rise to some comic situations where De Funès has to disguise himself first as the grandfather's father, and then as suitor to his mother. Without going any more into the detail of the plot one can say that it is highly amusing and entertaining. It has recently been issued on DVD in France with very good picture quality and French Subtitles, together with several other famous de Funès comedies, such as La Folie des Grandeurs, Oscar, L'Homme Orchestre ..............