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How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning

How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning (Les Bons Vivants)

Movie · 1965 · 5 people

The 1965 French-Italian comedy How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning was released in France as Les Bons Vivants and later retitled Un grand seigneur. It tells no single story but is made up of three separate short episodes, and in Germany it is known as Die Damen lassen bitten. It premiered in France on 28 October 1965 and was shot in black and white, running about 100 minutes.

The shared subject is the closing of a brothel after the Marthe Richard law of 13 April 1946, which outlawed such houses in France; the film treats that social change through comedy. The first two episodes, La Fermeture and Le Procès, are by Gilles Grangier, while the third, which gives the film its French title, Les Bons Vivants, is by Georges Lautner. Michel Audiard and Albert Simonin wrote the screenplay.

The leading players include Bernard Blier, Mireille Darc, Andréa Parisy, Bernadette Lafont and Louis de Funès, who takes the central role in the last episode. Darry Cowl, Albert Rémy, Bernard Musson, Bernard Dhéran, Catherine Samie, Dominique Davray, Aline Bertrand and Andrée Tainsy also appear in the cast.

DirectorGilles Grangier, Georges Lautner

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Cast

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Albert Rémy Actor · died at 55 Bernadette Lafont Bernadette Lafont Actor · died at 74 Darry Cowl Darry Cowl Stage actor · died at 80 Jacques Legras Jacques Legras Actor · died at 82 Pierre Bertin Pierre Bertin Film actor · died at 92

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Through different eyes

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film takes as its starting point the Marthe Richard law of 13 April 1946, which outlawed brothels in France, so a real social change lies beneath the comedy. Telling the closing of a brothel as comedy is an indirect way of seeing how a law played out in everyday life. Made in 1965, it also looks back with ironic distance on a measure passed some twenty years earlier. Turning a system built on women's bodies into comic material may sit uneasily with viewers today; the film is more rewarding read as a record of how its own era saw the subject.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

A three-part portmanteau with two directors: the first two episodes, La Fermeture and Le Procès, are by Gilles Grangier, while Les Bons Vivants, which gives the film its French title, is by Georges Lautner. A script by Michel Audiard and Albert Simonin raises hopes of a dialogue-driven French comedy. Shot in black and white and running about 100 minutes, it gathers a wide cast, from Bernard Blier, Mireille Darc and Bernadette Lafont to Louis de Funès at the centre of the final episode. The usual weakness of anthology films is a risk here too: shifts in tone and pace between segments can unsettle the rhythm of the whole. Even so, the shared subject works as a sturdy spine holding the pieces together.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

It is a comedy about the closing of a brothel, so it is not one to watch with children. It is a black-and-white French film made up of three separate episodes. Older viewers may be curious to see Louis de Funès. For a family evening, though, it is better to pick something else. Best left to adults who enjoy old French comedies.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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