One Woman or Two

One Woman or Two (French: Une femme ou deux) is a 1985 French screwball romantic comedy film directed by Daniel Vigne [fr], who co-wrote the screenplay with Élisabeth Rappeneau. It stars Gérard Depardieu, Sigourney Weaver, Ruth Westheimer and Michel Aumont.^[4]

One Woman or Two
Theatrical release poster
French	Une femme ou deux
Directed by	Daniel Vigne
Screenplay by	Daniel Vigne Élisabeth Rappeneau
Story by	Daniel Vigne
Produced by	René Cleitman
Starring	Gérard Depardieu Sigourney Weaver Ruth Westheimer Michel Aumont
Cinematography	Carlo Varini
Edited by	Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Music by	Kevin Mulligan Evert Verhees Toots Thielemans
Production companies	Hachette Première[1] FR3 Films Production DD Productions
Distributed by	Acteurs Auteurs Associés
Release date	6 November 1985 (1985-11-06)
Running time	97 minutes[2]
Country	France
Language	French[3]
Budget	30 million French francs ($3 million)[1]

The film is a rework of the 1938 American screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.^[5][6]

Plot

Shy paleontologist/archaeologist (Gérard Depardieu) makes an archeological find of the fossil remains of the first, two-million-year-old, French woman, whom he calls Laura.^{[7][8][9][10]} He is approached and conned by a crass and greedy American model and Madison Avenue advertising executive (Sigourney Weaver), masquerading as a charity organisation executive in order to use the woman for her own perfume advertising campaign.^[10][7]

Later the real charity organisation executive, ditzy rich American patroness of the sciences (Ruth Westheimer, in her feature film debut) turns up ... it all develops from there.^{[11][12][13][2]}

Cast

• Gérard Depardieu as Julien Chayssac
• Sigourney Weaver as Jessica Fitzgerald
• Ruth Westheimer as Mrs. Heffner
• Michel Aumont as Pierre Carrière
• Zabou Breitman as Constance Michaux
• Tannis Vallely as Zoé

Most of the dialogue in the film is in French, including that of Weaver (an American) and Westheimer (originally from Germany).^[14] This would not have been difficult for Westheimer, who had lived in Switzerland and France and had studied and taught at the Sorbonne in the 1950s.

Production

The film was shot in France (much of it in Paris) and New York City.^[1][15] French paleontologist Yves Coppens advised on the film.^[16]

Reception

Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Roger Ebert wrote of this film in a half star review, "Add it all up, and what you've got here is a waste of good electricity. I'm not talking about the electricity between the actors. I'm talking about the current to the projector."^[17] In 2005 he included it on his most-hated films list.^[18]

Richard Harrington, writing for The Washington Post said: "it's funny enough, and genial in the way French comedy tends to be."^[7]