Le permis de conduire (1974) User Reviews (2)

to drive or not to drive

[myriamlenys · 6/10 · 6 June 2019]

A young pater familias dislikes cars, considering them an annoying, wasteful and polluting form of transport. As a result he travels mainly by bicycle or by train. However, things change after he receives a job promotion which requires him to commute to a distant city. Soon our hero is wandering the deserted nighttime streets of France, bleating pitifully for help. Will he respond to the siren calls of his brother-in-law, a garage owner who lives for anything on four wheels ?

I've got to say that I found the first half of the movie very relatable, because I'm one of these people who dislike automobiles, for a wide variety of reasons. Never having owned a car I travel mainly by train, which, believe you me, is no job for the faint-hearted here in my part of the world. Most people have been understanding of this choice, although I've met my share of interlocutors who stared at me with the kind of fearful distrust one reserves for the feeble-minded or the mentally ill. ("So she doesn't drive. What's next ? Does she eat grass ? Is she house-broken ? In God's name, she's not about to dance naked on the table, now is she ?")

Other viewers too will recognize some of the situations, such as those unfortunate souls who find it difficult to obtain or keep a driver's license.

"Le permis" is watchable, it's pleasantly amusing, but it's not a gem or a masterwork. There's a nice cast giving decent performances and there's an agreeable evocation of everyday life in 1970's France, but both the screenplay and the various gags need more verve, more bite, more polish. The comedic timing too could be better.

One of the funniest bits is the part where the hero/antihero gets asked to drive a heavily pregnant woman to hospital, pronto. The result is a hellish ride where the driver gets applauded, by the very police, for casting all prudence aside and going fully Formula One. The scene reminded me a lot of a similar scene in "L'emmerdeur", which, I seem to remember, featured both Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel. ("L'emmerdeur" is the better film, so you know what to watch...)

Dated comedy but still relevant today

[nicholas.rhodes · 8/10 · 13 June 2007]

Anyone living in the Paris region and working far from where they live will be able to sympathize with and appreciate pour Louis Velle's plight in this film. Whilst public transport within Paris "intra muros" is relatively rapid, when you live in outlying suburbs and have to get into Paris or worse, to another outlying suburb, things become nightmarish. Louis Velle is a bank employee in the western Paris suburb of Vaucresson and is quite happy working locally and going to work on foot. One day, a computer decides to transfer him to a branch of the bank in central Paris, and our friend, not having a driving licence is obliged to take public transport, which all but kills him, he therefore eventually decides to invest in an automobile ( his brother-in-law is a motor dealer ) but first needs to take and pass his driving test, no laughing matter when the instructor is ( the now much regretted ) Jacques Legras. Driving lessons, bedding down in Paris, quiproquos in profusion, all go to make a very entertaining film for all those suburbanites or "banlieusards" who die a little bit every day in public transports. I also loved Pierre Tornade ( his nose is something else ) as the bank director who just cannot comprehend Velle's behaviour. I have had the film for years on VHS but it was issued on DVD some months back in France together with another of Velle's films "Les murs ont des oreilles". Unfortunately there are no subtitles and the picture quality does not seem to have been restored, but there is an interesting interview with Velle today ( who naturally appears much older than in the film - and who funnily enough relates his real life experiences when passing his driving test ). There is also an appearance by Claude Chabrol in the film as the concierge of a seedy hotel. The haircuts, clothes, cars in the film all appear very dated today as it was made in the seventies but the problems with traffic jams, train times and stress are today just as relevant as ever !