Le Viager

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Le Viager is a 1972 French comedy directed by Pierre Tchernia. It stars Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru and Claude Brasseur, with a script by René Goscinny.

In 1930 Paris, Dr. Léon Galipeau thinks his patient Louis Martinet will die soon. He arranges a viager, a deal where someone buys Martinet’s country house in Saint-Tropez and pays him a life annuity until Martinet dies. The buyers hope to get the house cheap by Martinet’s supposed quick death. They also index the payments to the price of aluminium, which they think will stay small.

But Martinet does not die. He stays healthy, and the annuity payments rise as aluminium’s value increases. The Galipeau family—Léon, his wife Marguerite, Emile and Elvire—try more and more drastic schemes to get rid of him, including wartime tricks that backfire and only confuse people.

Years pass, and Martinet becomes popular in Saint-Tropez, performing for locals and visitors. The Galipeaus’ plans to kill or ruin him fail one after another. Emile’s murder attempts on a paddle boat backfire, and others end with misfortune for the plotters.

Noël, the family’s nephew, grows up stealing from houses but is saved from prison by Martinet’s moving speech. Léon dies in a court case, and Noël hires two hitmen to kill Martinet for his 100th birthday. A fireworks show goes wrong, killing Noël, and Martinet survives.

The film ends with Martinet, now well over 100, in his sunny garden. He imagines the Galipeau family still in his world, unaware they all died trying to murder him.