The Holes (1974)

A real surprise.

This little treasure is something called "Les Gaspards" in French, which didn't have much of Depardieu (a minor role as a postman), but did have some other famous French actors (Michel Serrault and Philippe Noiret).

The best part of this film is that it was written by René Goscinny of Goscinny and Uderzo fame (authors of Asterix for those not in the know, with Goscinny being the author of that and many other comics). This is sort of a modern Asterix story, where parts of Paris disappear underground (see it to find out the details).

The only drawbacks are the poor transfer to DVD and dubbed dialogue. Given Goscinny's love of pun, I'd hate to think how much of this is being missed with the dubbed English dialogue(Goscinny's humour being more verbal than visual). This would be a superlative product if it were letterboxed and could have the original French dialogue with English subtitles. Still, it's an excellent little find for the price. September 29, 2002

The Holes.......dubbed

The main reason for my purchase of this film was because I am a Gerard Depardieu fan. For my enjoyment, I am trying to amass as many of his films as possible. His part was not that large, nor does he use his own voice for the dubbing. So, if you are a fan, looking for movies with or starring Gerard, you may be a bit disappointed with this one.

The movie itself, I thought was quite funny, and made me wonder what might be going on, right here, beneath NYC. Would it really be possible to have a whole community living there without anyone knowing? If you enjoy foreign films and comedies, check this one out. January 23, 2001

a cavalcade of great actors makes this one worth seeing

Scripted by rené gossiny (co-creator of astérix), this movie retains a cartoonish quality through it's storyline and situations. In short the story revolves around a secret society living in the vast Paris underground , having forsaken the surface dwellers. this new utopia is soon put in peril by a shopkeeper looking for his kidnapped daughter. The inevitable clash insues between the two societies with only possible result : hilarity ! Such an unlikely scenario might have worked without the massive injection of talent found in this picture: Michel Serrault, Philipe Noiret, Michel Galabru, Gérard Depardieu (in an early support role) and Jean Carmet make this a very enjoyable farce. June 20, 2000

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