leplatypus
De Funes movies have filled my childhood and "Hibernatus" didn't leave me a good memory. At the time, I couldn't stand the doctor (Londsale) and the "hibernatus". In addition, i felt stuck in the big old furnished mansion. Today, I find it rather enjoyable. The "hibernatus" really appears during the second half of the movie and the interview of the actor 30 years later available on the bonus helps soften his character. Moreover, De Funes steals the show as always and has the genius to turn "bad" guys into memorable characters.As I underlined in other reviews, a truly good comedy surprises you at each viewing because you can't remember all the funny moments. This is also the case here.In comparison with today movies, its short length (80 min) is appreciable because it's fast paced and has no time out.
Cristi_Ciopron
HIBERNATUS belongs to a series of popular comedies centered round Funès' crazy persona, and is one of the two or three Funès comedies I have seen in a movie theater. Funès' career has been very diverse and, of course, uneven. Some of Funès best known comedies are filmed plays—like HIBERNATUS, quite conventional and mildly amusing comedies, whose asset is not the inventiveness or originality of the script but the charm of the performers and Funès' wicked humor, his routine. Why pretend? These comedies are not Chaplin, Keaton, Fatty, Lloyd, Marx, Lemmon, Tati, Étaix, they're not marvelously funny or inspiring; they're not even Laurel and Hardy. They may serve to illustrate the comedy's descent into meaninglessness or at least vulgarity. If taken for what they are, these unpretentious bourgeois comedies offer some fun and are amusing. (An IMDb writer talks about 'present day French Cinema which seems incapable of making good comedy films such as it made in the sixties and seventies'—so others see differently the movie comedy's evolution ….) Take HIBERNATUS—it has a nice look of sex comedy—Funès' lust reinforced by the imposed abstinence, la _soubrette, etc..HIBERNATUS begins like a '60s updating of an old Sci—Fi idea—finding a person iced at the North Pole. The hibernated man is identified—and he's the grandfather of Funès' wife—though much younger, biologically, than she. The script has the tact to inspire this grandfather with filial love for his older granddaughter. Funès plays an wealthy irascible respectable bourgeois.Claude Gensac plays the bitchy Edmée, and she has been Funès partner in screen in many movies and more than any other actress—ten movies (of which three Gendarmes). The piquant Mrs. Claude Gensac and Funès have met in '52—in life, on stage and on screen.
Nicholas Rhodes
Louis de Funès was one of the funniest French comic actors and none of those on the scene today can even compare with him. Many of his films made in the 1960's and 70's are evergreens of French comedy and remain popular even today. Hibernatus is one of the best, together with Rabbi Jacob, La Grande Vadrouille and Le Corniaud (The Sucker). The script lively, the film only 78 mins long and Claude Gensac as his long standing "ma biche !" is magnificent. The film is basically about De Funes's wife's grandfather who is found frozen in the ice and comes back to life with his family in 1969 ! All surroundings are made to look oldy-worldy so that he may think he is still in 1905. All this gives rise to some comic situations where De Funès has to disguise himself first as the grandfather's father, and then as suitor to his mother. Without going any more into the detail of the plot one can say that it is highly amusing and entertaining. It has recently been issued on DVD in France with very good picture quality and French Subtitles, together with several other famous de Funès comedies, such as La Folie des Grandeurs, Oscar, L'Homme Orchestre ..............
Mort-31
I love Louis de Funès. His unique, very funny character makes me forget that he actually always played the same roles, or: whatever role he played, the role became like him. Many French films of the 1960s would have been boring and unsuccessful without him.The story of this movie was surely not tailor-made for Louis. It wouldn't need him, Louis is only an additional bonus here. „Hibernatus` is an absurd little comedy based on a completely crazy idea. A man is found alive in the ice after sixty-five years and in order to spare him the shock of waking up in a completely different world, the whole town is „dressed` like in 1905. Louis de Funès' family takes over responsibility for the man and of course, Louis is the one who suffers because of that.The film is very short and I suppose, it shouldn't be longer. It has many funny moments apart from the basically great idea. Playful, creative, sweet.
