Les Visiteurs movie storyline. In the year 1123, Godefroy Amaury de Malfête, Count of Apremont and Papincourt, saves the life of his beloved sovereign, King Louis VI “Le Gros” (“The Fat”) from the sword of a “horribilis” Englishman. For this action of bravery, the King makes him Count of Montmirail and promises him the woman he loves, the beautiful Frénégonde de Pouille.
On his way to the castle to marry Frénégonde, Godefroy’s drinking flask is drugged by the witch he had earlier taken prisoner. Hallucinating, he believes the Duke of Pouille, father of his future wife, is a ferocious bear, and kills him with a crossbow bolt. During the Duke’s funeral, Frénégonde refuses to marry Godefroy because of the tragedy, but Godefroy’s servant, the disreputable Jacquouille la Fripouille, steals the Duke’s jewels when the funeral ends.
In an attempt to repair his mistake, Godefroy asks the wizard Eusebius to send him back in time to a moment before he shot the Duke. The old wizard muddles his magical spell, accidentally sending Godefroy and Jacquouille to the year 1992. There, they immediately run into trouble with the Gendarmerie, then Godefroy is sent to the mental hospital (the police believes that he is suffering from amnesia), and after Godefroy tries to destroy the postman’s car (which they mistake for a devil’s chariot with a Moor in it), they meet Béatrice de Montmirail, an aristocrat who looks exactly like Frénégonde (being her descendant). Jacquouille, meanwhile, is befriended by Ginette la Clocharde (“Ginette the Tramp” in French), an attractive vagrant they meet early in their adventure.
Les Visiteurs (English: The Visitors) is a French fantasy comedy film directed by Jean-Marie Poiré and released in 1993. In this comedy, a 12th-century knight and his servant travel in time to the end of the 20th century and find themselves adrift in modern society.
Les Visiteurs was the Number 1 box office film in France in 1993, with 13,782,846 ticket sales and it remains the fifth highest grossing French film ever. The publicity for the film used the tagline Ils ne sont pas nés d’hier (“They weren’t born yesterday”). Reno and Clavier reprised their roles in a sequel in 1998, the American remake Just Visiting in 2001 and a second sequel in 2016. The castle of Ermenonville, in Oise département, served as decoration for the castle of Montmirail in the current time and the Cité de Carcassonne for medieval period.
Les Visiteurs (1993)
Directed by: Jean-Marie Poiré
Starring: Christian Clavier, Jean Reno, Valérie Lemercier, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Bujeau, Isabelle Nanty, Didier Pain, Arielle Sémenoff, Michel Peyrelon
Screenplay by: Jean-Marie Poiré, Christian Clavier
Production Design by: Hugues Tissandier
Cinematography by: Jean-Yves Le Mener
Film Editing by: Catherine Kelber
Costume Design by: Catherine Leterrier
Set Decoration by: Hugues Tissandier
Art Direction by: Bertrand Seitz
Music by: Eric Levi
MPAA Rating: R for language.
Distributed by: Gaumont
Release Date: January 27, 1993
Hits: 112
