Vivement Dimanche! [Finally, Sunday!] *** (1983, Fanny Ardant, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Serge Rousseau) – Classic Movie Review 3023

François Truffaut’s 21st and last feature film before his tragically early death at 52 from a brain tumour on 21 October 1984 is a surprisingly bright and jolly comedy thriller – a movie toast to his mentor Alfred Hitchcock and starring his close friend, the beguiling Fanny Ardant.

Here, in the 1983 French film Vivement Dimanche! [Finally, Sunday!], it is fitting that Truffaut has one last time around him several of his most trusted long-term collaborators, co-writer Suzanne Schiffman, photographer Nestor Almendros (filming in stylish 40s black and white), and composer Georges Delerue.

Based on the 1962 novel The Long Saturday Night by American author Charles Williams, the lightweight pulp plot has innocent estate agent Julien Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) on the run from the police after a man he knew is murdered while hunting at the same place, while his uncertain secretary Barbara Becker (Ardant) tries to prove he didn’t do it. Unfortunately, the police discover that Julien’s wife (Caroline Sihol) was the dead man’s mistress, and his fingerprints are found on the man’s car, so it looks bad for Julien.

It may be only an after-dinner chocolate of a film rather than a meal, but it is a handmade, beautifully wrapped confectionery. Everybody involved looks as though they are enjoying themselves, so no one need feel discouraged because it’s a playful farewell, rather like Hitchcock’s own with his final film Family Plot.

Also in the cast are Serge Rousseau, Philippe Laudenbach, Philippe Morier-Genoud, Xavier Saint-Macary, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Anik Belaubre, Jean-Louis Richard, Yann Dedet, Nicole Félix, Georges Koulouris, Roland Thénot, Pierre Gare, and Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko.

Vivement Dimanche is known as Finally, Sunday! and also Confidentially Yours in other English-speaking countries.

It was Bafta nominated as Best Foreign Film, and César nominated for Best Director and Best Actress, but no wins, but then it’s not really an award-winning type of film, just an entertaining one, and, for that, many thanks.

It premiered at the Locarno Festival on 5 August 1983 and was released in France on 10 August 1983.

The third co-writer is Romanian born Jean Aurel (6 November 1925 – 24 August 1996), who also notably co-wrote Love on the Run and The Woman Next Door with François Truffaut and Suzanne Schiffman.

The cast are Fanny Ardant as Barbara Becker, Jean-Louis Trintignant as Julien Vercel, Jean-Pierre Kalfon as Massoulier’s priest brother, Philippe Laudenbach as Julien’s lawyer Maître Clément,  Philippe Morier-Genoud as Superintendent Santelli, Xavier Saint-Macary as Barbara’s ex-husband Bertrand Fabre, Jean-Louis Richard as night club owner Louison, Caroline Sihol as Julien’s wife Marie-Christine Vercel, Castel Casti as taxi driver, Anik Belaubre as cashier Paula Delbecq, Yann Dedet as Angel Face, Nicole Félix as the scarred whore, Georges Koulouris as private investigator Lablache, Pascale Pellegrin as would-be secretary, Roland Thénot as Jambreau, Pierre Gare as Inspector Poivert, and Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko as the Albanian.

François Truffaut’s 21 feature films: The 400 Blows (1959), Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1962), Silken Skin (1964), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Bride Wore Black (1968), Stolen Kisses (1968), Mississippi Mermaid (1969), The Wild Child (1970), Bed & Board (1970), Two English Girls (1971), A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (1972), Day for Night (1973), The Story of Adele H (1975), Small Change (1976), The Man Who Loved Women (1977), The Green Room (1978), Love on the Run (1979), The Last Metro (1980), The Woman Next Door (1981), and Confidentially Yours (1983).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3023

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