La Vérité si je mens! (English title: Would I lie to You?) is a 1997 French comedy film directed by Thomas Gilou.
In Paris, Édouard "Eddie" Vuibert (Richard Anconina) is a struggling unemployed man. Victor Benzakhem (Richard Bohringer), a wealthy Sephardi Jewish textile manufacturer from the Sentier district, takes Eddie into his corporation out of pity, mistakenly believing him to be Jewish as well. Eddie rapidly integrates in the Parisian Jewish textile community as he rises from warehouseman to sales manager and makes himself some friends in the business, including Dov Mimran (Vincent Elbaz), Yvan Touati (Bruno Solo), Serge Benamou (José Garcia) and Patrick Abitbol (Gilbert Melki). He continues his masquerade of pretending to be an Ashkenazi Jew, tries to woo his boss's daughter Sandra (Amira Casar) and eventually decides to start his own textile business, which doesn't go without troubles.
It spawned a film series which would go on to include:
- La Vérité si je mens! 2 (2001), a sequel in which Eddie gets scammed by a crooked supermarket chain businessman and teams up with his friends to scam the guy in retaliation.
- La Vérité si je mens! 3 (2012), a sequel in which Eddie & friends fight back against a mobster who has lured them into a trap.
- La Vérité si je mens! - Les débuts (2019), a prequel telling how Dov, Yvan, Serge and Patrick became friends.
The films provide examples of:
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La Vérité si je mens!
- The Alleged Car: Eddie's car from his unemployment days is downright crappy. The driver side door can't be opened so he has to enter the car from the other side, and that side's door audibly creaks. Too bad he has to use it the night he decides to try to woo Sandra...
- Becoming the Mask: Eddie passes as Jewish, and ends up converting.
- Black Like Me: Eddie, a Gentile, passes as Jewish to climb the ladder of the textile business in a majority Sephardi Jewish community.
- But We Used a Condom!: The combination of a diaphragm failure and Dov not using condoms causes Karine to get pregnant.
- Clashing Cousins: Serge Benamou and Patrick Abitbol are cousins. Serge always finds ways to profit from Patrick's wealth and house and Patrick hates him for this.
- Coincidental Accidental Disguise: Upon rescuing Eddie from the thugs who tried to screw Eddie with a Three-card Monte and chased after him to beat him up, Victor grabs a Star of David necklace on the ground and believes it belongs to Eddie (while it actually belongs to one of the attackers), thus believing he's Jewish. Eddie just runs with it, and his life rapidly improves from there.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: At Patrick's house, Eddie inadvertently finds Dov and Karine having sex in a bedroom. Dov sees Eddie, but they don't stop and Eddie sheepishly closes the door.
- Coolest Club Ever: Dov, Yvan, Serge and Rafi hang out at the same nightclub and invite Eddie in it. The Bouncers don't let Eddie in the first time due to his clothes practically screaming that he's poor, but Dov intervenes to let him in.
- Fish out of Water: It takes some time to Eddie to learn how to convincingly pass as a Jew, such as when he shows up at work on Saturday morning only to find the shop closed (because it's Shabbat) or when he doesn't know what "Ashkenazi" means, gets invited by Dov to celebrate Shabbat, goofs up every step of the dinner and doesn't understand Hebrew.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Serge Benamou cannot shut up about his "get rich quick" schemes to make money in the fashion business. They never seem to work.
- Jewish Mother: Sandra's mother bombards Eddie with indiscreet questions and advises him to never marry a non-Jewish woman.
- Like a Son to Me: Eddie is so good and dedicated at his job that Victor treats him like a son, at least until he decides to go solo.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Eddie and Dov trick an angry driver into thrashing the sports car of Maurice, who's The Rival to Eddie for the heart of Sandra. He does so with a baseball bat.
- Rank Up: One day, even at his low warehouseman echelon, Eddie manages to conclude a lucrative sale, which impresses Victor and causes him to get promoted as sales manager in Victor's business.
- Shell Game: Some shady guys invite Eddie to play a Three-card Monte at the beginning, but he isn't fooled and spots the sleight of hand, which causes the chase that leads Eddie to the Sentier district and Victor Benzakhem.
- Shiksa Goddess: Yvan tries to woo a beautiful Swedish girl at the club.
- Social Climber: Eddie has limitless ambition and doesn't want to remain a simple textile employee.
- Start My Own: Eddie gets tired of Victor's conservative business practices and wants to implement more aggressive/entrepreneurial methods in their business, which causes a rift between the two. Eddie then leaves Victor's workshop and starts his own business with his own methods.
La Vérité si je mens! 2
- Con Man: Denis Vierhouten tricks Eddie into a scam that leaves him with next to nothing, and Eddie plans a revenge on Vierhouten with another scam as a result.
- Fake Static: At one point, Serge wants to get rid of a phone conversation about his debt. To do so, he moves the phone back and forth away from his mouth and pretends he's in a tunnel, before hanging up.
- Funny Foreigner: Serge makes an "Uzbek" impersonation in order for the gang to scam Denis Vierhouten. It's shit full of As Long as It Sounds Foreign and scenery chewing, but it works.
- Sequel Non-Entity: Rafi doesn't appear in the film. In Real Life, his actor Élie Kakou died from lung cancer in 1999.
La Vérité si je mens! - Les débuts
- Identical Grandson: Gilbert Melki plays Henri Abitbol, the father of Patrick. Melki played Patrick in the first three films.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Yohan Manca as a younger Patrick, Mickael Lumière as a younger Dov, Anton Csaszar as a younger Serge and Jeremy Lewin as a younger Yvan.
