The (difficult) relationship between students and teaching staff has always been a source of comedy, especially when the class defends itself against (too) overbearing teachers with more or less nasty pranks. Since time immemorial, entrenched clichés have been used here on all sides: from “Feuerzangenbowle” to “The Flying Classroom” to “Fack ju Göhte”, described by the deeply serious Goethe Institute as a “comedy of a special kind”, surprisingly little has been done. One of the unwritten rules of school comedy is that the tormented timpanists will eventually fight back – and in doing so, win the hearts of even the cheekiest bullies.
In “Monsieur Robert Knows No Pardon” by Pierre-François Martin-Laval, the eponymous teacher waits until retirement to put his decades-long desire for revenge into action: Robert Poutifard (Christian Clavier) still lives with his mother (Isabelle Nanty), and a group of children who played badly with him at the time are to blame for this. The kids are now grown up and extremely successful. The cheeky Audrey, the brains of the gang for Monsieur Poutifard, is now an acclaimed pop star with the stage name O'Drey (Kézia Quental). Her neighbor Anthony became a famous star chef (Roby Schinasi) – and the twins Mélanie and Camille (Noémie Chicheportiche and Salomé Partouche) are celebrated as influencers. Poutifard's meticulously planned revenge plans are also supported by his mother, who also contributes a few additional nastiness…
Robert (Christian Clavier) and his mother (Isabelle Nanty) plot their revenge.
At first it all sounds funny and original, and the film actually starts with a loving opening credits, designed from Poutifard's carefully kept “Diary of Humiliations”. This is followed by pictures from the past. They show an exasperated elementary school teacher who has to assert himself against a school class that is egged on by the four kids mentioned above. The only bright spot in the troubled timpanist's life is his acquaintance with his new colleague Claudine (Jennie-Anne Walker). But the student Audrey swears: “I will finish you, Poutifard!” – and the gang of children actually manages to prevent the lovers from getting engaged.
20 years later, Poutifard is gray and retired. He still drives his now scrappy canary yellow small car and withdraws his entire savings from the bank – around 7,500 euros, which doesn't necessarily reflect positively on French teacher salaries. Poutifard needs the money for the big revenge. The first on his list is Anthony, the master chef, a brutal mischief-maker with a posh star-rated restaurant, of which there soon won't be much left thanks to the ex-timber's ingenuity and a heavily drooling attack dog named Rambo.
After the first act of revenge, the drops have already been sucked
But when Anthony and his restaurant are taken care of, the comedy runs out of steam. The subsequent exposure of the two stupid influencers is not half as funny as the room fight with Rambo, even if the president is doused with paint. He is played by the director himself, who bears a vague resemblance to Emmanuel Macron. This type of humor has actually been outdated since the 1970s at the latest, which is partly due to the development of democracy: politicians are no longer as aloof and enjoy significantly less respect than before. Finally – unfortunately, one might say – Poutifard and his mother also discover their hearts before the pop star O'Drey is attacked.
The former bastard Audrey has to bear a difficult fate: her son suffers from a rare disease that inevitably soon leads to death. But until the inevitable happy ending, the tough farce drags on like cheap processed cheese, and the pleasure increasingly gives way to disappointment at the silliest and silliest jokes. Christian Clavier, who does his best, can't change that, nor can Isabelle Nanty, who (although actually much younger than Clavier) plays his very energetic mother with a brick 1960s spray hairstyle and a rusty, grater voice.
If necessary, Monsieur Robert also digs deep into his bag of disguise tricks.
The two have often acted together, including in the two “School Camp” films, very well-known and popular school comedies in France, also directed by Pierre-François Martin-Laval. The characters are all very roughly carved, which normally doesn't detract from the comedy, but isn't carried through consistently here. At the beginning it works, Monsieur Robert and his mother are pretty weird: a scared primary school teacher who hates his job and his authoritarian mother who smells sexual innuendos everywhere.
There are also a few original supporting characters, including a car mechanic on testosterone and a Russian arms dealer who eats live worms. The layout is pretty and comically exaggerated – including the appearance of Poutifard in the disguise of Super Mario. The following disaster is probably solely due to the script, which is based on a children's book known in France. Apparently an attempt was made to update the material, make it interesting for older kids and adults, and at the same time lead to a good, politically correct ending.
Conclusion: What begins as a strange farce could have escalated into hearty slapstick, but ends as a maudlin family comedy with the charm of a joke junk shop and, unfortunately, with a rather clearly raised pedagogical finger. It's a shame – the middle finger would have been funnier. But I probably didn't have the courage for that.