In metahistorical New York city electrotechnician Lafayette deals with a megalomaniac director of a wax museum of ancient Rome, an italian lonely anarchist, a group of feminist actresses - including Angelica who falls in love with him - and a small adopted chimpanzee.
| Tagline | |
| Release Date: | Feb 24, 1978 |
| Genres: | Comedy, Drama |
| Production Company: | Prospectacle, Action Films |
| Production Countries: | France, Italy |
| Casts: | Gérard Depardieu, Marcello Mastroianni, James Coco, Abigail Clayton, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Stefania Casini, Francesca De Sapio, Mimsy Farmer, Avon Long, Nathalie Bernart, Sandra Monteleoni |
| Status: | Released |
| Budget: | $0 |
| Revenue: | 0 |
BYE BYE MONKEY (1978) - Sadly unable to find an American theatrical distributor when initially released, director Marco Ferreri's visual treatise on gender roles and human civilization - while often inscrutable - is kept afloat by sympathetic performances and startling visuals. Gerard Depardieu - who was perhaps the most daring actor working circa the late-'70s - is once again totally uninhibited as a man who finds a baby monkey in the shadow of the World Trade Center and decides to raise it as his own; Marcello Mastroianni has several touching moments as a sexually frustrated misfit who has become disillusioned with America; while James Coco is properly imperious as a wax museum proprietor interested in preserving a certain type of masculinity. Multi-layered and heavily symbolic (and with enough nudity and sex to easily qualify for a 1978 X-rating), this one is for connoisseurs of the offbeat and those who miss the good old days of intellectual arthouse cinema.
