Laughter and Punishment (2003)
"Rire et châtiment" (original title)

Vincent Roméro is an osteopath who makes a point of being funny every minute he is awake. In fact it is his way to remain the center of attention. His antics wind up irritating his wife ... See full summary »

Director:

Isabelle Doval

Writers:

Olivier Dague, Isabelle Doval,

Stars:

José Garcia, Isabelle Doval, Laurent Lucas

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
José Garcia	...	Vincent Roméro
Isabelle Doval	...	Camille Sétine
Laurent Lucas	...	Jacques
Benoît Poelvoorde	...	Le prof de secourisme
Véronique Picciotto	...	Catherine
Philippe Uchan	...	Pierre
Judith El Zein	...	Agnès
Marie Mergey	...	Madame Bourdier
Renaud Rutten	...	Chauffeur de taxi
Alain Bouzigues	...	Le dragueur dans la rue
Valérie Benguigui	...	Audrey
Jean-Marie Lamour	...	Mickäel
Bénédicte Charpiat	...	Jeune femme
François Berland	...	Barman bar billard
Delphine Bibet	...	Libraire russe

Storyline

Vincent Roméro is an osteopath who makes a point of being funny every minute he is awake. In fact it is his way to remain the center of attention. His antics wind up irritating his wife Camille, a geriatric doctor, to such an extent that she leaves him one day. At first Vincent is so persuaded his many qualities are hard to beat that he can't doubt she will soon come back. But as she doesn't, he starts questioning himself. All the more as he realizes, to his dismay, that each time he clowns the people around him start dying of laughter...literally that is!

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Plot Keywords:

chiropractor | hospital | parody | leaving | husband wife relationship | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French Russian

Release Date:

22 January 2003 (France)

Also Known As:

Laughter and Punishment

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

€5,350,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$2,215,937 (France) (24 January 2003)

Gross:

$4,707,509 (France) (7 February 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

MP Productions, EuropaCorp, France 2 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

When the Russian waiter speaks to Vincent in Russian, what he says is subtitled as "Do you have Slavic origins?", while it really means "Do you have Orthodoxal origins", which is clearly not what it was intended to be.

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Connections

Featured in Rire et châtiment: le making of (2003)

User Reviews

My girlfriend's state of mind after this movie

After this movie... actually, while we were watching this movie, my girlfriend was starting to act weird and she was really sleepy. Few minutes after I noticed this, she lost all her energy and was barely able to move. Like the movie itself sucked the life out of her. I asked her what is wrong with her, she mumbled something about numb brain and limbs. I ignored her words thinking she was only sleepy, but after the movie was done I noticed it was something much more. She wouldn't react to my words in a sensible way. I had to bring her back to life with massage and yelling to her face. All this has made me go write my first IMDb review after many years rating movies on this site. I believe this movie is little boring, pointless and typical romantic movie which I don't like. The thing is, I watched this movie because I wanted to see what will they say/do about the book "Crime and punishment" that is my favourite book. They only included the book in one short story about some guy that is non important and dull. To sum it up: not so entertaining, not a good mention of a great book and my girlfriend almost lost her will to speak.