La Chèvre


La Chèvre is a 1981 French comedy film directed by Francis Veber, starring Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu. It is the first of three films featuring Richard and Depardieu as a comic duo.
An American remake of this film was made in 1991, starring Martin Short and Danny Glover, entitled Pure Luck.

Plot

La Chèvre features Depardieu as the tough-guy private detective Campana, hired to find Marie, the daughter of a rich businessman, who has mysteriously disappeared while vacationing in Mexico. The case turns out to be complicated – several attempts to find her have already failed. A psychologist, Meyer, who works for the businessman, suggests a plan. Marie is known to be extremely unlucky and accident-prone; the psychologist advises sending someone equally accident-prone to find her, on the theory that what happened to her may also happen to him, and thus, following her steps while the detective tags along, the daughter can be found and returned home. Richard's character Perrin is an awkward, accident-prone accountant who works for the businessman, and is chosen to implement the scheme. The adventures of an odd duo begin...

Cast

The movie is sadly infamous in Italy for an arson in a cinema in Turin in which it was projected, killing 74 people.

Reception

The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1985 by the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.