In a foreword by Georges Lautner, the director of the movie, he explains that he always alternated serious and comedy movies. La Grande Sauterelle is a follow up of Galia a drama which Lautner directed in 1966, the same year as an other comedy, "Ne nous fâchons pas". In 1967 he decided to return to more serious scenario and what makes the charm of the movie is the great sensitivity which surrounds the whole movie and the dialogs especially Francis Blanche which is playing a small part here. The crime aspect of the movie is not important. It's here to show how two very different human beings can suddenly become related to one another to the point to change the course of the life of one of them. Hardy Kruger and Mireille Darc are perfectly matched in the movie, not only because of their handsomeness but also because through their rather limited dialogs they are capable of transmitting to the viewer the emotions and thoughts of a whole generation at a moment when a profound change in the perception of life was going to happen or even was happening. Of course today younger generations cannot perceive what was at stake in those years and the film can only be fully appreciated by people who were reaching their adult life at that time, who were part of those changes. The film is also served by the great dialogs of Lautner's accomplice, Michel Audiard. Only fluent French speaking spectators can really appreciate the movie because those dialogs are untranslatable and no subtitles will ever succeed to give their flavor.
