La métamorphose des cloportes

One of Pierre-Granier Deferre's first efforts,"la métamorphose des cloportes" boasts a good cast:Charles Aznavour,Lino Ventura,Pierre Brasseur and in a small part,Françoise Rosay as Gertrude who provides the men with the "tools" they need for their "job' (break-ins ).It's not a film noir,by a long shot,but an unpretentious harmless little comedy which sometimes works -Ventura in jail watching the 1960/61/62/63/64 news-and sometimes does not -Aznavour disguised as a guru:he was ahead of the 1967 summer of love craze though-.

The great pre-nouvelle vague directors (Duvivier,Cayatte,Autant-Lara et al) were no longer forces to be reckoned with and their successors -non new wave young directors that is- such as Granier-Deferre and De La Patellière - were not up to scratch.

Two Granier-Deferre's movies which deserve to be watched: "le chat" (1970) thanks to the fabulous Jean Gabin/Simone Signoret team,and "une étrange affaire" (1981) .