How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning

Released as Les Bons Vivants in France (also known as Un grand seigneur) and distributed abroad as How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning, this 1965 French-Italian comedy is built from three separate sketches: the first two, "La Fermeture" and "Le Procès," directed by Gilles Grangier, and the closing "Les Bons Vivants" by Georges Lautner. Written by Michel Audiard and Albert Simonin, the film wraps its comedy around the closing of a brothel after France's 1946 Marthe Richard law banned them.

Its ensemble cast includes Louis de Funès, Bernard Blier, Bernadette Lafont, Darry Cowl and Albert Rémy, giving the anthology format a roster of recognizable comic and dramatic talent. The sketch structure lets each director bring a distinct tone to the shared theme, and the film has held up as a modest but representative slice of mid-1960s French satirical comedy.