''Les Compères'' (;

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

title: ComDads) is a 1983 French

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

film written and directed by Francis Veber, and starring Gérard Depardieu,

Pierre Richard Pierre Richard (born Pierre-Richard Maurice Charles Léopold Defays; 16 August 1934) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. Pierre Richard is considered by many, such as ...

and

Anny Duperey Anny Duperey (born Annie Legras; 28 June 1947) is a French actress, published photographer and best-selling author with a career spanning almost six decades as of 2021 and more than eighty cinema or television credits, around thirty theatre pr ...

. The film had 4,847,229 admissions in France. In 1997, this movie was remade as '' Fathers' Day'' in the US. When it was released in the U.S. in the summer of 1984, it received negative reviews from many critics. Siskel & Ebert gave it two resounding "thumbs down" marks on their TV show, stating that the movie was "basically a French sitcom" and had too many stupid characters.

Plot

A teenaged boy has run away from home. His father is ineffective at finding him, so his mother contacts two former lovers from around the time her son was conceived, telling them both that the child is their son and asking them to look for him. One of them (Depardieu) is a tough

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

investigating

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

, while the other (Richard) is a timid former teacher who was on the verge of committing suicide when he received the telephone call. The two former boyfriends finally meet, and together they locate the son. They both argue who is really the father. In the end the son tells both Depardieu and Richard (while the other is out of earshot) that his mother thinks that he is the father. Thus, the son adopts both of them as his fathers, and also reconciles with his real father.

Cast

— Francois Pignon * Gérard Depardieu — Jean Lucas *

— Christine *

Michel Aumont Michel Henri Aumont (15 October 1936 – 28 August 2019) was a French theatre, film, and television actor. Throughout his career, he gained four Molière Awards and nominations for three César Awards. In 2015, he was made Grand Officer of the Na ...

— Paul * Stephane Bierry — Tristan * Roland Blanche — Jeannot *

Philippe Khorsand Philippe Khorsand (February 17, 1948 – January 29, 2008) was a French actor. His father was Iranian and his mother was French. He first appeared in a number of small roles in the 1970s. One of his most memorable roles as husband and father in ' ...

— Milan * Jean-Jacques Scheffer — Ralph

Trivia

*The title translates literally as "The Accomplices." It is a pun, as the word "père" means "father" in French, and moreover "compère" would mean something like "co-father", "confather", with the same (Latin) prefix as the English con-/com-/co- in words like "confederate", "accomplice", "co-conspirator", etc.

References

External links

* * * 1983 films French crime comedy films 1980s French-language films Films directed by Francis Veber Films scored by Vladimir Cosma 1980s crime comedy films 1980s buddy comedy films 1983 comedy films 1980s French films {{1980s-France-film-stub