Adémaï aviateur: Fernandel being Fernandel in the clouds

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s slapstick and you genuinely find Fernandel’s face funny, then yes. Watch it on a rainy Sunday. If you need a tight plot or modern pacing, skip this. It’s a bit of a relic, and it definitely feels its age, especially in how it wanders around without really going anywhere important.

The whole movie rests entirely on Fernandel’s shoulders. He plays Adémaï with that signature wide-eyed, slightly bewildered expression he mastered. There is a specific scene where he is trying to manage a cockpit that made me laugh out loud, mostly because he looks like a cat stuck in a box. Classic.

It’s a lot like watching Josser in the Army in terms of that specific brand of military-comedy chaos, though maybe a little less focused on the drills and more on just being a general nuisance. The jokes are simple. They are loud. They are very much of their time.

The messy bits

There are moments where the film just feels like it’s stalling. You can tell the director was just letting the cameras roll while Fernandel improvised some gag for five minutes too long. It’s not great filmmaking, but it’s weirdly endearing. It feels like watching a home movie that accidentally got a budget.

I found myself wondering if they even had a script for half of these scenes. Sometimes the supporting cast looks like they’re struggling to keep a straight face, which only adds to the charm. There’s a scene involving a parachute that I’m pretty sure was just a genuine accident they decided to keep in the final cut. ✈️

• Fernandel’s eyebrows deserve their own credit.
• The aviation scenes look like they were filmed in a glorified bathtub.
• The humor is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but it works.

It’s not trying to be a deep dive into the human condition like Passion Flower, and thank goodness for that. It’s just fluff. Sometimes, you just need to see a man in a silly hat fail to fly a plane. Don't overthink it.

If you’re looking for high-art cinema, look elsewhere. But if you want to see a master of physical comedy just goofing around before the world went sideways in the late thirties, this fits the bill. It’s messy, it’s disjointed, and honestly, it’s kind of a relief to watch something that doesn’t demand a single brain cell. Just sit back and let the nonsense happen. 🍿