Directed by Julien Duvivier (Poil De Carotte), and “fortuitously coinciding with the rise of the New Wave, this delightful comedy in a sense both climaxes and satirises the French cinema to that point, and it's literally made for film buffs. A director and his writer try to concoct a boy-meets-girl script with a Bastille Day background, and their trial and error efforts make up the film. Duvivier pokes fun not only at his own earlier works, but also those of Carné, DeSica and others, as well as the stylistic excesses of film noir. Even Georges Auric's scoring is occasionally self-satirising. A thoroughly delightful romp that hasn't been seen in years, thanks to the American remake Paris When It Sizzles.”