How sad is this?

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Roger Hanin -then President François Mitterrand 's brother -in-law -had big ambitions -and probably a big budget too : "Le Grand Pardon" was intended as a French "Godfather" ,no less.Needless to say ,it's little short of disaster.The only reason why you would sit through these two hours + is the cast which features Bernard Giraudeau,Anny Duperey,Richard Berry,Jean-Louis Trintignant,Jean-Pierre Bacri.... Based on true facts,but it does not make this Jewish family saga exciting for all that.Alexandre Arcady even made a "Grand Pardon 2 " (1992) which took place in Miami (like DePalma's "Scarface" ) and featured Christopher Walken and Jill Clayburgh.

A very bad one : a story with all the stereotypes about jewish Pieds-Noirs. Hanin exagerates his manners and the result is nothing but a very caricatural image of a world that doesn't look like this. The actors themselves don't seem to believe in the movie. Better watch Once upon a time in America in which the jewish society is described quite rightly.