General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Hibernatus

Hibernatus is a 1969 French-Italian comedy directed by Édouard Molinaro, starring Louis de Funès as Hubert de Tartas, a company boss whose life is upended when his wife's grandfather is found frozen in polar ice after 65 years of natural hibernation, still believing it is the beginning of the twentieth century.¹^•² It was produced by Gaumont in co-production with Rizzoli Film of Rome and released in France on 10 September 1969.³

Key fact	Detail
Director / year	Édouard Molinaro, 1969; France-Italy co-production (Gaumont, Rizzoli Film)¹
Source	Adapted by Jean Bernard-Luc from his own play Hibernatus, a stage success ten years before the film¹
French release	10 September 1969, distributed by Gaumont, visa number 34997³
Leading cast	Louis de Funès (Hubert de Tartas), Claude Gensac (Edmée), Bernard Alane (Paul Fournier, the hibernated man)¹
Key crew	Music Georges Delerue; cinematography Marcel Grignon; sets François de Lamothe; costumes Jacques Fonteray¹
Box office	A comfortable place in the 1969 French box office¹
Later recognition	Screened at the 2015 Festival de Cannes, Cinéma de la Plage⁴

Spoilers

Plot

An expedition in Greenland finds a man of about twenty-five inside a block of polar ice, preserved astonishingly young since the years around 1900. He is perfectly alive, and is quickly identified as Paul Fournier, the grandfather of Edmée de Tartas. Scientific authorities take the recovered man under control and decide he must go on living in his own era so that no psychological shock disturbs him: Hubert's town house is completely refitted in Belle Époque style and the whole family dresses and behaves as in the early 1900s.⁵

Hubert, at the end of his rope under the arrangement, finally blurts out the truth and drags the Edwardian-era man on a wild spree through the most futuristic aspects of the twentieth century.² The situation generates a run of quid pro quos: Hubert believes he can win acceptance by resembling, as in the old photographs, Paul's own father.⁵

Cast and characters

Louis de Funès plays Hubert de Tartas, with Claude Gensac, his frequent screen wife, as Edmée. Bernard Alane plays the hibernated Paul Fournier, and Olivier de Funès, the star's son, plays Didier. The supporting cast includes Michael Lonsdale as Professor Loriebat, Pascal Mazzotti as Professor Bibolini, Yves Vincent and Annick Alane as Monsieur and Madame Crépin-Jaujard, Claude Piéplu as the secretary general, Paul Préboist as the clumsy butler Charles, and Martine Kelly as Sophie.¹^•³

Production

The film reunited Louis de Funès with Édouard Molinaro two years after the success of Oscar (1967).¹ The screenplay and dialogue are credited to Jean Bernard-Luc, Jacques Vilfrid, Jean Halain, and Louis de Funès himself, who reworked successive versions of the script and played with the details; the Cinémathèque française notes that on set he was the boss and the team followed.¹

A difficult shoot. Relations between the actor and his director were tense, and it took all of Claude Gensac's diplomacy to mediate. Molinaro later recalled the pressure de Funès lived under: "Moteur, ça tourne, fais-nous rire maintenant!", enormous things were expected of him. On screen nothing of it showed, and Molinaro remembered the collaboration with tenderness once relations had calmed: "with de Funès we formed a difficult couple, we gave birth in pain, but our babies were not too botched".¹

Shooting took place in the Île-de-France region, at Asnières-sur-Oise, Le Bourget, Roissy-en-France, and Saint-Cyr-en-Arthies, among other locations in Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, and Seine-Saint-Denis.⁶ Producers were Alain Poiré, Angelo Rizzoli, and Jean Le Duc.⁶

Reception and afterlife

The Cinémathèque française records that Hibernatus occupied a comfortable place at the 1969 box office, and singles out the "revelation" scene as a high point of the vaudeville.¹ Télé Star's retrospective view calls it a lively boulevard comedy full of quid pro quos that gave de Funès, at the peak of his art, one of the most hilarious performances of his career.⁵ On AlloCiné the film holds a spectator rating of 3.4 out of 5 from 12,528 votes.⁷

Runtime listings disagree across catalogs: the Cinémathèque française and Gaumont give 100 minutes,¹^•⁸ L'Officiel des spectacles gives 1h40,³ while AlloCiné lists 1h18⁷ and Télé Star 90 minutes.⁵

The film was shown at the 2015 Festival de Cannes as part of the Cinéma de la Plage program.⁴ Gaumont's catalog now offers it in 2K, HD, and SD resolutions, in color, with a 2.35 scope image ratio and mono sound.⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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