Gramps Is in the Resistance

Gramps Is in the Resistance (Papy fait de la résistance, 1983) — watch online on iFILM: a French wartime comedy directed by Jean-Marie Poiré, one of the biggest box-office hits in France that decade. The tagline claimed it cost more than the D-Day landings, which tells you exactly what kind of film this is.

Paris, 1943. The Bourdelle family — opera singers and musicians — has been pushed into their own cellar while German officers occupy the floors above. What the occupiers don't know is that the seemingly hapless son, Guy-Hubert, is the underground's most feared operative. Add a downed British airman hiding in the walls, a local Gestapo chief with personal grudges, and a cousin with a direct line to the Führer's inner circle — and the chaos compounds fast.

The cast is a roll call of French comedy royalty from the era: Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot, Michel Blanc, Thierry Lhermitte, Josiane Balasko — nearly the full Splendid theatre ensemble together on one set. Sharp, fast, and completely uninterested in sentiment. Stream Gramps Is in the Resistance (1983) online on iFILM.