Dead Tired

Dead Tired (Grosse fatigue, 1994) is Michel Blanc's French comedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Blanc plays a version of himself: a worn-out movie star who discovers that a lookalike is running around Paris causing havoc under his name.

It begins with small humiliations — rudeness to a reporter, an insult at a premiere he never attended. Then the double gets serious, helping himself to Blanc's roles, his reputation, his friends, while nobody believes the real man's protests. Blanc flees to the countryside with Carole Bouquet, but the nightmare follows him home. The film is stuffed with stars playing themselves, from Philippe Noiret to Josiane Balasko to Roman Polanski.

Writing and directing as well as starring, Blanc turns celebrity paranoia into a sharp satire of fame and the movie business that feeds on it. The joke cuts both ways — you pity the man and laugh at the industry that chewed him up. It took the Best Screenplay prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Stream Dead Tired (1994) online on iFILM.