Happy Easter

Happy Easter
Happy Easter
Directed by	Georges Lautner
Written by	Jean Poiret
Starring	Jean-Paul Belmondo ; Sophie Marceau
Cinematography	Edmond Séchan
Release date	24 October 1984;
Running time	98 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	3,428,900 admissions (France)

Happy Easter (French: Joyeuses Pâques) is a 1984 French comedy film, adapted from Jean Poiret's eponymous play, that was directed by Georges Lautner and stars Jean-Paul Belmondo with Sophie Marceau and Marie Laforêt.

Plot

Stéphane, a businessman in Nice, is a compulsive womaniser. At the airport, where he has just left his childless wife Sophie who is off to visit relations, he picks up Julie, a teenager who has nowhere to sleep. After accepting a restaurant dinner, the girl agrees to go back to his apartment for the night. To her shock and his horror Sophie returns, unable to complete her journey because of a strike. The quick-thinking Stéphane claims that Julie is a secret daughter. When the rightly suspicious Sophie asks what has led her to look up her father in the middle of the night after all these years, Julie claims that she is pregnant. Then Sophie's suppressed maternal instincts all well up and nothing is too much for her pretty stepdaughter and future step-grandchild, but she does insist that Julie tell her mother where she is.

Next day is Stéphane's birthday, for which Sophie has invited to dinner his business associates and their wives, plus Rousseau, a burly trade unionist who is negotiating a deal with Stéphane. Julie is bought a nice dress and, despite his hatred of capitalists, Rousseau soon falls for her. Proceedings are interrupted by Julie's vulgar mother bursting in drunk to reclaim her little girl. Everybody is horrified that the suave Stéphane should have consorted with this harridan before the elegant Sophie, but after a few more vodkas she passes out and is put to bed. In the morning, Stéphane discovers that Julie has slipped off to a conference where Rousseau is speaking and in fury breaks it up to reclaim his little girl. After admitting the masquerade, to Sophie's amusement and Stéphane's discomfiture, Julie and her mother depart.