In my book, Claude Lelouch is much better at making comedies than at making interminable sagas,the likes of "les uns et les autres " and "toute une vie" ;"la bonne année ", "le voyou" "le chat et la souris" and this "Robert et Robert " are graceful works .
The mariage bureau is a subject few directors have broached : the unfairly overlooked "agence matrimoniale" by Le Chanois (1952 )dealt with it ; a quarter of century later, they have changed ,and the computer was already used (the head of the bureau , played by the excellent Jean-Claude Brialy ,is proud of it , and for a good reason ,in 1978 ,it was almost a sci-fi item)
Two clients of the bureau , both called Robert , meet and become friends: i have a marked preference for Villeret :as soon as he appears ,as a self-conscious student gendarme ,he wins over the audience ;not liking him is as perverse as not liking the sun; every time he appears ,he steals the show, even from his co-star Charles Denner ,who is competent but sometimes displays a tendency to overact ; the taxi ,when he sees the warnings and where you can have tea or coffee , is good fun .
Lelouch's directing is fluid, astutely blending reality and dream (the wedding which segues into a music hall performance is an excellent trick); besides he adds some sadness to the bill of fare : the trip to Waterloo (what a choice!) ,organized by the marriage bureau, is no picnic ;one feels the loneliness of these men and women in search of a soul mate in spite of Brialy disguised as Napoleon's efforts to enliven things a bit.
On the other hand , there's filler :the "private club" ,the ball scene which is too long ,the mothers who are both crude caricatures as well as some of the clients of the bureau. And some navel-gazing by the director, who uses again the "un homme et une femme" title song.
But all is forgotten after you watched Villeret ,a gifted actor who disappeared too soon.
