In the films of the 1960s and 70s, French cinema held a far more prominent place in our viewing lives than it does today. Among the great figures of French comedy, Louis de Funès stood at the forefront. Through characters such as Commissioner Juve in the popular Fantômas series, he brought not only laughter but also a sharp, satirical view of authority and modern life.
Released in 1976, L’aile ou la cuisse (Wing or Thigh?) may appear at first glance to be one of de Funès’s later, fast-paced comedies. Yet beneath its physical humor lies a surprisingly deliberate critique of modernization, industrial production, and the emerging idea of the “mass production of taste.”
Charles Duchemin, played by de Funès, is the editor of France’s most influential gastronomic guide. His reviews can make or break restaurants. But Duchemin does not see this power as a status symbol. For him, it is a responsibility: a means of defending what he calls “real cuisine.” Food, in his view, is not merely sustenance. It is labor, ingredients, locality, and cultural continuity.
The story unfolds through Duchemin’s confrontation with Tricatel, a fictional food conglomerate that supplies restaurants with frozen, standardized meals. Tricatel represents a new industrial kitchen model driven by efficiency, scale, and profit. To many, it looks modern and practical. To Duchemin, it is nothing less than a betrayal of gastronomy itself. As he attempts to expose the artificial mechanisms behind this system, the film reaches the heights of physical comedy while quietly posing a disarming question:
Are we eating food, or merely something that imitates food?
Duchemin’s son Gérard (played by Coluche) introduces the human and social dimension of this conflict. While his father wants him to inherit the mission of defending haute gastronomy, Gérard remains distant from this elite culinary world. Their tension reflects more than a generational gap. It mirrors the friction between “high cuisine” and everyday eating, between cultural prestige and ordinary life. It is here that the film becomes most interesting: it questions both refined gastronomy and mass consumption at once.
By the final act, the artificiality of Tricatel’s idea of “taste” is laid bare. Yet the film never falls into a nostalgic call to “return to the past.” Its message is more demanding and far more relevant:
If progress is built by erasing what is human, local, and rooted in labor, can it truly be called progress?
The People Behind the Film
Claude Zidi (Director)
One of the most prolific directors of French popular cinema, Claude Zidi became widely known in the 1970s and 80s for comedies that reached vast audiences. What distinguishes his work is his ability to embed social observation within genres often dismissed as “light.” L’aile ou la cuisse exemplifies this approach: entertaining, fast, accessible—yet carrying a sharp cultural critique beneath the surface.
Louis de Funès
An iconic figure of French comedy, de Funès is remembered for his exaggerated expressions, physical acting, and explosive nervous energy. But his true strength lies in how he embodies authority figures, small power-holders, and characters obsessed with order, exposing the anxieties of modern society. In films such as The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez, Fantômas, and La Grande Vadrouille, he reached millions. Here, he treats gastronomy not merely as pleasure, but as a field of cultural identity.
Coluche
Coluche represents the most powerful voice of “popular” humor in French cinema. His style, rooted in stand-up, is marked by directness and sincerity. As Gérard, he provides a grounded, worldly counterpoint to de Funès’s high-energy performance, restoring social balance to the film and preventing its critique from becoming purely elitist.
Reception and Relevance
Upon its release in 1976, the film was a major box-office success. Critical responses, however, were divided. Some dismissed it as a conventional de Funès comedy; others recognized its critique of gastronomy and consumer culture as unusually perceptive.
Over time, L’aile ou la cuisse has come to be seen not merely as a comedy, but as an early reflection on the industrialization of food. In today’s world—where fast-food culture, artificial flavors, mass production, and the erosion of local cuisines dominate global debates—the film feels uncannily current.
A Film About Food, or About Culture?
France is defined by a deeply rooted gastronomic tradition, one that integrates wine as an essential element of everyday cultural life. Wing or Thigh? is among the earliest films to question what is lost when culinary practice becomes industrialized.
The scene we chose to share, naturally, is the rare moment in which wine enters the narrative. Yet the film as a whole reminds us, from nearly fifty years ago, of the cost at which transformation in the food system often comes.
Claude Zidi, Louis de Funès, and Coluche are no longer with us. We remember them with affection—and with gratitude for a film that still asks the right questions.
