La Classe américaine

Infobox Film
name = La Classe américaine


image_size =
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director = Michel Hazanavicius
Dominique Mézerette
producer = Ève Vercel
Robert Nador
Michel Lecourt
writer = Michel Hazanavicius
Dominique Mézerette
starring = John Wayne
Dustin Hoffman
Robert Redford
Paul Newman
music = Laurent Petitgirard
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Canal+ Group
released = 2003
runtime = 70 min
country = France
awards =
language = French
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0321715

"La Classe américaine" ("American Class") is a 1993 French television film, written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and Dominique Mézerette. It consists exclusively in extracts of old Warner Bros. films, put together and dubbed with new lines so as to create an entirely new film.

Making of

Warner Bros. had given the French film and television studio Canal+ Group the rights to use extracts of Warner Bros. films. Hazanavicius and Mézerette set about producing an entire film from cut-and-paste existing footage, and hired the usual French dubbers of John Wayne (Raymond Loyer) and Kirk Douglas (Roger Rudel) to dub them here too. "La Classe américaine", which lasts seventy-two minutes, incorporates scenes cut from about fifty films, including "All the President's Men", "Band of Angels", "Blood Alley", "Bullitt", "The Candidate", "Chisum", "The Cowboys", "The Crimson Pirate" and "When Time Ran Out".

ynopsis

The film begins with the following lines appearing on screen, complete with spelling mistakes: "Attention! Ce flim n'est pas un flim sur le cyclimse. Merci de votre compréhension." ("Attention! This flim is not a flim about cyclign. Thank you for your understanding.")

The story begins with the death of George Abitbol (John Wayne), described as the classiest man in the world, somewhere near the fictitious atoll of Pom Pom Galli in the South Pacific. Reporters Dave (Paul Newman), Peter (Dustin Hoffman) and Steven (Robert Redford) investigate his death by going to meet people who knew him during his life in Texas.

Cast

*John Wayne : George Abitbol
*Dustin Hoffman : Peter
*Robert Redford : Steven
*Paul Newman : Dave
*Burt Lancaster : José
*Dean Martin : Dino
*Henry Fonda : Hugues
*Frank Sinatra : Franky
*Clark Gable : the actor
*Robert Mitchum : Yves
*Lana Turner : Isabelle
*Martin Balsam : Callaghan
*Orson Welles : himself
*Donald Sutherland : the hitman
*James Stewart : Jacques
*Charles Bronson : the Native American chief
*Elvis Presley : the "putain d'énergumène" ("damn oddball")
*Ned Beatty : Frédéric
*Angie Dickinson : Jacqueline
*Spencer Tracy : the professional witness
*Ernest Borgnine : Ernest
*Jan-Michael Vincent : the helicopter fan
*Yvonne De Carlo : the actor's wide
*Randolph Scott : Joël Hammond
*James Franciscus : Professor Hammond
*Lauren Bacall : Christelle
*Slim Pickens : Deep Throat
*Antonio Fargas : Huggy

References

* [http://french.imdb.com/title/tt0321715/combined "La Classe américaine"] on IMDB
* [http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=111200.html "La Classe américaine"] on AlloCiné