I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This has to be my favourite French film ever! I recall seeing it's very well dubbed English version on TV in the early '80s. It was remade into The Woman in Red, which was pretty banal in comparison. But thanks to TV5 Monde, I was able to see the original version en Francais.The film centres around Jean Rochefort, his friends and family. At the start, we see him standing precariously on the ledge of a high building. The reason why is shown at the film's end. (I won't give it away here) This is followed by a flashback. He is a middle-aged some-what bored businessman, who has his head turned one day when he sees a mysterious woman standing under an air vent in a car park. She happens to be wearing a flimsy red dress (hence the US title of the remake) which flutters in the breeze. She seems to enjoy this, and returns to the vent for a second helping. After she walks away, Rochefort tries it out for himself, but the effect for him in his buttoned overcoat is not as sexy to the viewer. Or even him. This is the catalyst for his obsession with the girl, played by Anny Duperey, who eventually turns up at his place of work, much to his surprise.Meanwhile, his loving and quite attractive wife, is being sexually harassed by a chubby friend of their teenage daughter, this is not to mention the personal problems that Rochefort's tennis buddies also encounter.This is well worth a look, even for the dubbed version. There was also a sequel made sometime after, but the magic was not there.

A banal bureaucrat who works in a Paris ministry sees an engaging amazon in an amaranth dress;the man had a decent family life.On all sides,his friends are left by their wives because they were caught having affairs. Étienne Dorsay's wife,Marthe (the delicious Danièle Delorme),is an attractive and very straight woman;she warns her husband about the consequences of his being caught with another woman.But Étienne plans nonetheless to meet the mysterious beauty sub Rosa.Étienne sees the woman,Anny Duperey, on an ad poster,and finds how to meet her;then,he rides Anny Duperey down.Completely amoral,Dorsay's imbecility is equaled only by his selfishness.As such,the movie is cynical and illusion-less."Un elephant ..." is a long flash-back,as it starts with Dorsay's odd illumination on the roof,when he contemplates freely the prospective of stepping further into profligacy.It is the turning of an bureaucrat into a libertine;but Dorsay remains none the less an imbecile."Un elephant ..." has several subplots (Jean Rochefort's three womanizing and somehow stupid friends have their various misfires with their prosaic love affairs;Dorsay' s wife,Danièle Delorme,is harassed by a disagreeable teen-ager,and she sometimes looks as if she is close to ceding to him).A female colleague,Martine Sarcey, misapprehends his intentions. A word about the actors:Jean Rochefort brings some bonhomie and calmness,but also the crap poetry of the boorish clerks.Not a bit of respectability in his character; Jean Rochefort/Dorsay remains selfish and narrow-minded.The script is an almost bitter study in amorality,albeit that in a suave register,and it has the '70s frankness of keeping to sex only.These sex marauders,Jean Rochefort and his friends,have no charm,and the movie does not pretend that they have any.Around Dorsay,the sex escapades fail ,but "Un elephant ..." has a bizarre,fanciful and interesting ending.It is true that "Un elephant ..." does not reach the narrative ampleness that some sex-comedy of that era had,instead it is constructed as a series of gags,and as an open registration of sexual tribulations that ultimately denotes a certain "disabusement".Three gorgeous actresses (Anny Duperey,Danièle Delorme,Martine Sarcey).

This Yves Robert's film gave Gene Wilder the idea for a US remake ("The Woman in red"). But the latter doesn't have neither the freshness nor the simplicity of the French version.As a European, I feel myself better at ease with the Robert's movie because it is nearer to my culture -and the fact that actors and action are set in Paris make easier for me to understand the way characters think...It's doubtless a French comedy, with a perfect actor for this kind of work -Jean Rochefort, who portrays a typical French "bourgeois", awkward, shy and proud of his social position at the same time. A frustrated male of Latin culture...!Etienne (Rochefort) falls in love with a sexy woman he meets in his bureau. This woman is then chosen for an advertisement... He will do everything for conquering her, unless telling it his wife. The film is a joke about men erotically fantasies.The film is witty, charming and well written. Whereas Italian comedies play mostly with satire, strange comical faces and misunderstandings, French comedies are less caricature, they present "clownesques" situations in (appearently) more serious environments. Two excellent comical approaches! They're so different from American comical movies -in American comedies there's more mess, you laugh because situations are so incredible and full of contradictions.This film is worth to see, Jean Rochefort is funny even if he seems serious. When I saw the Gene Wilder movie I didn't enjoy so much -Wilder is an excellent actor, but his "Woman in red" had something quite artificial.. It was not as spontaneous like the original one. Wilder is better with his extravaganzas, with slapstick elements...

Etienne(Jean Rochefort)is a happily married man and a good father. His friends all have secret affairs and/or cheat on their wives. One morning, Etienne sees a woman in red passing by his car. He falls in love with her and tries everything to get to know her better. Of course, this must be kept a secret to his wife.Whereas the story may not be very original, this film is extremely charming and amiable nonetheless. It has a great supporting cast(Brasseur is a stand-out), very funny moments and many real-life characters. Too bad this charming little film was later remade as THE WOMAN IN RED(with Gene Wilder and Kelly LeBrock). But Hollywood seems to have this "urge" to make their own version of each film with a bit of success outside the States. Anyway, if you have to choose between the original and the remake, choose UN ÉLEPHANT...(or PARDON MON AFFAIRE as it is sometimes called). 7/10