Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Bertrand Blier made a career of buddy films in which clueless men haplessly and hopelessly try to understand the women around them, a string of social satires that have been described as everything from mischievous to misanthropic. His 1978 romantic comedy Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, one of the most unusual ménage à trois sex comedies ever made, stars Gérard Depardieu as Raoul, a doting husband to his depressed, lethargic wife Solange (Carole Laure), who is mopey to the point of being virtually inert. Raoul is so desperate to make her happy that he invites handsome schoolteacher Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere) to become her lover, and when the two men become best friends, the romantic triangle turns into a mad buddy film. What Solange needs is a child, Stéphane insists, so they become counselors at a boys summer camp, where Solange’s maternal instincts are aroused by a precocious, bullied 13-year-old genius who seduces her and gives her back her laugh. Blier has a knack for creating deadpan absurdity and he corkscrews the plot twists into surreal territory by the end—which is hilariously absurd as it upends romantic comedy conventions. For all of its unorthodox and transgressive twists, the film—which was a smash hit in France and an arthouse success in the U.S., where it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film—remains unexpectedly upbeat and joyous. Newly restored, extras include an introduction by film historian Richard Peña. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)