The Three Brothers (1995)

Not much reviews on here for this very well known French comedy. It's a classic that almost everyone saw at least once in France or Belgium. Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan and Pascal Légitimus are better known as "Les Inconnus" for their sketches. Here they are together for a movie and it's the typical humor they are known for that you can watch. I read that somebody said it was the best French comedy he ever saw. Well he's entitled to his opinion of course, but the fact is that are way better comedies than this one. For example everything done by the team of "Le Splendid" is better. But Les Trois Frères isn't bad though. To me it's an okay movie to watch once. But if you want the absolute top of French comedy you should watch Le Père Noël Est Une Ordure, Les Bronzés, Les Bronzés Font Du Ski, Les Visiteurs, Le Diner Des Cons... All those movies are way better than this one.

Fmovies: It's the "Inconnus"'s first movie for the screen and they made a funny and entertaining comedy. But it's not sufficient to consider it as a masterpiece. Three men who are very different are discovering that they are brothers. They 're also discovering that they're going to inherit a fortune that used to belong to their mother. But the inheritance is cancelled and they must escape from the police, the notaries, the bailiffs. Now that they are in the street, they've got to beg for but at the same time, they're learning to know each other better.... The film won the Oscar for the First Best film in 1996 but did it really deserve it? The "Inconnus"'s performance is quite convincing and each of their character's personnality is well portrayed. It's a pity that they often ham it up. The screenplay is a bit of a mess and I am under the impression that it's a pretext for a succession of sketches where they are talking about leading subjects nowadays: unemployement, immigration etc.... Due to a big number of these sketches, the film never seem to end. Moreover, the secondary and minors actors are bad used. On one hand, they are left to themselves, like the notary; on the other hand, they're falling into the caricature like Rougemont who is the man who puts Didier Latour up, or the racist bailiff. I also noticed that most of the actors were talking very fastly and so it was difficult to understand them. Nevertheless, the film is often funny thanks to the dialogues and the comical situations but they aren't deprived of vulgarity. To sum up: a film which could have been better if it had been more controled.

This is an excellent comedy by "Les Inconnus", it was very successful in France and I recommend it to everyone that knows a bit about the french culture.

The Three Brothers fmovies. Just plain hilarious... Even though the last 15 minutes are a bit less comical (you have to find an ending to these comedies... it's very often the less fun part), you need to see this movie... The actors are good and a lot of jokes made me go wild... even though I am unsure of their worth if they are to be translated... For all who speak French it's a must!! 9/10

In the late 80's and early 90's, 'Les Nuls' and 'Les Inconnus' (literally "the nobodies" and "the unknowns") were the 'Rolling Stones' and 'Beatles' of French comedy.

'Les Nuls' were a product of the Canal + generation, , mostly relying on absurd and Pythonesque humor while 'Les Inconnus' were more satirical, depicting French society with a humor easily labeled today as politically incorrect (like a parody of "The Invaders" where the aliens were Arabs). The popularity of the two trios culminated with the release of their respective movies: in 1994, "The City of Fear" by 'Les Nuls', a parody of crime thrillers with the Cannes Festival as a backdrop and in 1995, "The Three Brothers", a more mature comedy about three men in a crisis-stricken France.

"The Three Brothers" was faithful to the usual tone of the group and rather than a succession of gags, it relied on a solid script and heart-warming story that ensured the film's success (it was the highest-grossing French film of the year). The film isn't a laugh-riot and has its slower moments but there is a heart inside, an evolution of characters, and some powerful messages about values like family and brotherhood. Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan and Pascal Légitimus play characters of the same name who couldn't have been more different and it's precisely their different backgrounds that make their interactions so hilarious, while the heart of the film relies on their common denominator: a mother.

Didier is a security guard in a clothes store and a womanizer living with a traditionalist family; because he has no other alternative, he endures both their bigotry and pressure to marry their prude and dull daughter. Bernard is a half-time detergent-demonstrator and 'arts film' actor, the closest to the definition of a loser. Finally, Pascal is the most successful one, he's your typical yuppie who works in a Marketing agency where everyone wears ponytails to imitate the boss, the confident and towering Mr Steven (Berndard Farcy) although he likes to be called Steven since he doesn't believe in bossing, which doesn't prevent him for firing when necessary, using convincing metaphors to justify it.

The diversity of their background is not just used in the set-up but establishes their personalities with a real depth. Bernard is the gentle bum, displaying the same kindness he probably used to depend on. Didier is unconsciously affected by the racism of his host. Pascal, the self-made man, treats people with an arrogance proportional to his boot-licking at work. The three men often express xenophobic or racist remarks, but this is only a facade to hide their own insecurities. Today, one of the three men would have been gay and another a struggling artist, Bernard, Didier and Pascal are respectively, worker, unemployed, salaried like only "Les Inconnus" could have portrayed, average men expressing average ideas, a credit to the realism of the screenplay.

The trio first meets in an attorney office where they learn that their mother passed away two years ago, and left a significant fortune of three million francs, for each one million, translated into the film's catchphrase "cent patates" ("10 racks"). The money doesn't unite them anyway, each one decides to take a different path, Bernard buys himself a 1957 Chrysler, Didier, who met an old girlfriend decides to t

Possibly the funniest french movie I have seen in my life. Of course, one has to be found of « les inconnu »'s sense of humor. I believe this movie is a perfect introduction to their madness. Here, their story starts with the revelation of an inheritance and the chain reaction that succeeds. The "three brothers" was an instant success in France. It's no Hollywood style and the logic of it may not reach everybody's mind, except if you have been trained to laugh out loud at french humor (not as famous as french kiss, french windows, french slides and french fries (oups, liberty fries, sorry), but one of the best in the world, indeed. Enjoy.