Didier

Alain Chabat is a very popular French actor. This movie constitutes his first transition behind the camera. Far from being a perfect success, "Didier" remains a fair and honest comedy.

Alain Chabat adopted a correct making that contains interesting clever visuals and ringing brainwaves. It succeeds in compensating a rather slight screenplay. It's based on a convenient situation: this is the story of a man (Jean-Pierre Bacri) who's very embarrassed because he's got to cope with several problems, especially professional. One of his friend asks him to take care of his dog, "Didier". One morning, "Didier" has become a man... Moreover, some parts of the screenplay make it conventional, Didier will find out (unwittingly) the solution to solve his master's worries and predictable (imagine the feelings of people who see a man on the street who behaves like a dog).

At last, the movie loses of its lure when it comes to deal with football (Jean-Pierre Bacri plays the role of an unlucky trainer). Despite everything, some dialogs and several sequences are funny enough to burst into laughter. The result isn't great but it's nice. It's also a movie with an ounce of fantastic. One last thing: Alain Chabat had the good idea by not revealing the truth about Didier's transformation into a man.

... but, my goodness, I LOVE THIS FILM!!!

This is one of the most original films I've ever seen. Alain Chabat was a good actor and comedian in other films, but here he delivers an ace performance. Outstanding, I've never seen anything like this. Sorry, if I sound simply overwhelmed, but, well, I am! I take my hat off.

But to be fair, I also have to mention Jean-Pierre Bacri, who is equally joyful to watch because he plays his part so very straight-faced that for the viewer it is easy to accept a crazy and completely unrealistic story as realistic. As if it could happen to yourself, just like this.

In this film you don't get to see the typical fooling about you see so very often in other French comedies. That's why this film is a little gem, which shouldn't be missed by anybody. For everybody who is not able to understand enough French, my DVD for example comes from Southeast Asia, it has (if horrible) English subtitles. So there are ways for everybody to see this beauty.

Unfortunately, I just read somewhere there are plans to do a remake of this film in the US. Please, don't be stupid, don't do a remake. The film is perfect as it is, no remake is necessary and anyway, it could only be a cheap, useless, superfluous copy. Stay with the original. Please.

10 out of 10. Honestly.

Didier is an unusual film about a dog becoming a man, keeping his dog's mind.

It deals with a humorous tone with more serious things, and the fact that Alain Chabat wrote the script and is the main protagonist is a plus - but also shows the limits. A few nice, very funny moments, smart and hilarious lines "hey you treat him real bad. You talk to him like he's a dog".

Shot in Montpellier, Southern France, it's a pleasant film for an hour or so. It won't change your life but was never meant to. Kept a bit shorter, it would have been better even, the end is slow to come.

I first saw Didier when it came out - back in 1997. I was living in Brussels then and although my French was not very good yet, I enjoyed it _a lot_. I just saw it on video for the second time and I'm so glad I did because I could now fully appreciate the humour in Alain Chabat's dialogues (which unfortunately lose a bit of their sharpness when translated to other languages) and Jean-Pierre Bacri's performance. Bacri is a very good actor - very natural, very real and very charming. And Chabat is perfect as a ... human dog - even in small details as in the way he looks at Bacri when he scolds him about sniffing other people's ass or when he asks him whether he slept with his girlfriend. I do hope that Chabat will soon create another film as funny, original and "genial" as Didier. P.S. If you speak French, don't miss the credits at the end of the film and the small messages from Chabat here and there.

Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock once confessed that he had never said that all actors are cattle.He said that all actors should be treated like cattle.By directing a rib tickling comedy film "Didier", French comedian/director Alain Chabat also seemed to suggest that all actors are nothing but dogs.He has his own reasons to have made this satirical film as he bagged its most important role of a manly dog which is more intelligent than other human beings.Didier is not at all a film for kids.It is a film for those adults who behave like kids as their love for football and animals especially dogs have made this film a big success.Most of the people who have a solid knowledge of French cinema know that Alain Chabat is a good comic actor but nobody had imagined that he would go on to undertake a serious task of directing fellow actors.One of the most talented French actors Jean Pierre Bacri is largely known for his challenging roles in serious films nevertheless he has delivered a fine performance in Didier.This is a film for your family if you are in a position to tolerate its slightly offhand silly jokes about female anatomy.