Character Relationship Map: Distracted

Characters

• Pierre Malaquet (played by Pierre Richard) — protagonist

  Pierre is a creative, bizarre, and extremely scatterbrained young advertising employee whose reckless ideas repeatedly create comic disasters. Hired at Jerico through his mother Glycia, he causes scan...

• Lisa Gastier (played by Marie-Christine Barrault) — protagonist

  Lisa is Guiton's young, charming secretary and the daughter of an important agency client. She becomes Pierre's friend and eventual love interest, tries to restrain his most extreme advertising projec...

• Guiton (played by Bernard Blier) — supporting

  Guiton is the strict boss of the Jerico advertising agency. Although Pierre repeatedly disrupts the business with outrageous campaigns, Guiton initially protects and forgives him because of his secret...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Pierre Malaquet → Guiton (Professional Employee) — Pierre works under Guiton's authority at the advertising agency.

  Guiton hires Pierre at the Jerico advertising agency and later assigns him to a small ground-floor office.

• Lisa Gastier → Guiton (Professional Secretary) — Lisa works directly within Guiton's office structure.

  Lisa is identified as Guiton's young secretary at the advertising agency.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Pierre Malaquet → Lisa Gastier (Social Friend) — Lisa becomes Pierre's closest supportive companion within the agency.

  Pierre makes friends with Lisa at the office, and they later stroll together while discussing a toothpaste advertising idea.

Story Analysis

A chaotic advertising career turns into a comic emotional journey as Pierre's excesses threaten his work but lead him toward love.

Plot Progression

1. A Scatterbrained Arrival — Pierre enters Jerico and immediately unsettles the agency with bizarre ideas. His friendship with Lisa begins while Guiton continues to tolerate his behavior.
2. Mistakes Become Spectacle — Pierre delivers an important contract to the wrong place and is thrown out after disrupting a party. A greenhouse mishap leads Guiton to isolate him in a small office.
3. Advertising Without Limits — Pierre develops public campaigns for toothpaste and plastic packet bags. Both ideas produce fights, scandals, and increasingly serious pressure on the agency.
4. The Broadcast Disaster — Lisa rejects Pierre's most shocking commercial, but the videotape reaches television by mistake. Public protests surround the agency, and Guiton finally fires Pierre.
5. Love And Departure — Pierre realizes he loves Lisa and declares his feelings in his apartment. Guiton grants him another chance, but Pierre misses the departing plane in a final comic reversal.