Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Hubert de Tartas' life becomes a complete muddle when his wife's grandfather is unearthed after having spent 65 years in frozen hibernation in the polar circle. After being de-frosted, the Hibernating Man believes it is still the beginning of the century. Nothing is spared to keep that illusion alive. At the end of his rope, Hubert blurts out the truth and takes the man from Edwardian times on a crazy spree through an ultramodern Twentieth Century.
Hibernatus is a charming French comedy vehicle built around Louis de Funès, whose manic physical comedy elevates formulaic material. The fish-out-of-water premise — a man frozen since the early 1900s rediscovering modern life — is competently executed but not especially original even for 1969. De Funès carries the acting as usual, supported by a reliable ensemble, though no one else particularly stands out. The cinematography is workmanlike French studio fare with little visual ambition. The plot offers pleasant situational comedy around the generational clash and the family's increasingly desperate deception, but it follows a predictable escalation-and-revelation arc. The ending wraps things up tidily but without particular wit or surprise, feeling rushed. Novelty gets a modest bump for the science-fiction conceit blended with bourgeois family comedy, which gives the film a somewhat distinctive flavor even if the execution is conventional.