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La Totale!

La Totale!

Movie · 1991 · 15 people

Thierry Lhermitte, Miou-Miou, Eddy Mitchell and Michel Boujenah head the cast of La Totale!, a 1991 French spy comedy that Claude Zidi directed from a screenplay he wrote with Didier Kaminka and Simon Michaël; some sources file it as a comedy action film instead. In English the title is "The Total", roughly "the complete package". AMLF released the 102-minute film in France on 18 December 1991.

The story centres on a spy (Lhermitte) who leads a double life as an ordinary white-collar worker, his family unaware of who he really is. Meanwhile his wife (Miou-Miou), bored by their monotonous routine, begins an affair with a con artist who poses as a spy (Boujenah). Once the husband notices, the resources of his profession become instruments of a personal score. The cast also includes Annick Alane, Bérangère Jean, Fabienne Chaudat, François Hadji-Lazaro and Henri Attal, and the film marked Frédéric Diefenthal's screen debut.

The film was shown in Germany as Der Joker und der Jackpot and in Russia as Totalnaya slezhka. It was also remade in the United States: James Cameron directed True Lies (1994), an action comedy with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

DirectorClaude Zidi

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Cast

Only cast members with a profile on this site are listed.

Eddy Mitchell Eddy Mitchell Television actor · 84 years old Henri Attal Henri Attal Actor · died at 67 Thierry Lhermitte Miou-Miou Michel Boujenah Jean Benguigui Annick Alane Bérangère Jean Fabienne Chaudat François Hadji-Lazaro Frédéric Diefenthal Hélène Zidi Sagamore Stévenin Sylvain Katan Thierry Liagre

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Through different eyes

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

The real cleverness in Zidi's film is how it turns the tools of the spy genre on the dullness of married life. A man leading a double life is fertile ground for parody, but once the wife's boredom and her affair with a fake spy come in, the story changes course, moving from spy comedy to a farce of jealousy. That sources file it sometimes as a spy comedy and sometimes as comedy action looks like a symptom of that indecision. In my view the film sits somewhere between the two genres and fully satisfies neither. Still, the fact that Hollywood thought the premise worth remaking shows how solid the core idea is.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

If you love True Lies, it is interesting to know the same idea was filmed in France first. But set your expectations early: the focus here is not on big chases but on the mess in the spy's home life. To me the weight is clearly on the comedy. For anyone after tension and pace this is not an action film; it is a chance to compare for those curious where the remake came from.

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

The film treats a familiar anxiety about early-1990s middle-class marriage with humour: a husband who hides his job from his family and a wife worn down by the monotony of her life. Taking her boredom seriously is an interesting starting point. Yet the husband turning the resources of his profession into a personal score makes for uncomfortable ground by today's standards, since watching and controlling a spouse becomes material for comedy. It is a choice that reflects the period's view of gender roles and deserves a more critical reading now.

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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