''The Men'' (french: Les Mâles) is a Canadian crime comedy film, directed by

Gilles Carle Gilles Carle, (July 31, 1928As fully funny, Carle had pleasure to always give himself one year less, and to let people think wrongly that he was born in 1929, "The Year of the Big World Crash": see on the Quebec French newspapers that many writer ...

and released in 1971.

Gerald Pratley Gerald Arthur Pratley (September 3, 1923 – March 14, 2011) was a Canadian film critic and historian. Piers Handling"Gerald Arthur Pratley" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', September 18, 2011. A longtime film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Cor ...

, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 143. The film centres on Jean ( Donald Pilon) and Émile (René Blouin), a lumberjack and a student who have been living off the grid in the wilderness, who decide that they need a woman to join them and head into town to look for one.Jacques Siclier
"'Les Mâles', de Gilles Carle"
''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', May 20, 1972. They resort to kidnapping Dolores (Katerine Mousseau), a prison guard who is the daughter of the village police chief, leading the villagers to mount a

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...

mob to capture Jean and Émile and bring them to justice.Martin Knelman, "Les Males: Carle's slapstick celebration of Quebec society". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', June 17, 1972. The film's cast also includes

Andrée Pelletier Andrée Pelletier (born August 24, 1951) is a Canadian actress, screenwriter and film director. As an actress, she is a five-time Canadian Film Award and Genie Award nominee, receiving nominations for Best Actress at the 29th Canadian Film Award ...

and

Guy L'Écuyer Guy L'Écuyer (July 26, 1931 - September 20, 1985) was a Canadian actor from Montreal, Quebec. He was most noted for his performance in André Forcier's 1983 film ''Au clair de la lune'', for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Act ...

. Martin Knelman of ''

'' reviewed the film favourably, writing that "At his most brilliant, Carle achieves a form of comedy that's part Rabelaisian and part

Keystone Kops The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. History The idea for the ...

, but just under the surface of slapstick raucousness there's a sense of desperation, of despair on the brink of violence and defeat. This double-sighted attitude is what gives Carle's movies their peculiar comic edge and their self-propelling energy."

Reception

The film was seen by 302,950 people in France.

References

Works cited

External links

* 1971 films 1971 comedy films Canadian crime comedy films 1970s French-language films Films directed by Gilles Carle French-language Canadian films 1970s Canadian films {{1970s-Canada-film-stub