Tandem

Rochefort plays an aging radio celebrity whose travelling quiz show has been a fixture for 25 years. Jugnot is his combination producer/assistant/chauffeur, coping with the star's ego, health and gambling problems as they progress from town to town. On the Paris hook-up, Jugnot learns that the show is about to be axed, and the film's central section consists of his frantic, futile efforts to delay his boss's finding out. A persistent, obtrusive theme song is the only miscalculation in a quirky, quietly amusing tale. Always tricky to come up with a satisfying ending for anecdotes like this, but Leconte manages very well, with a finale as low key and unexpected as everything else about the picture.