Cartouche (1962) - film review

Dominique Bourguignon is a prodigious thief in 18th century France, belonging to a band of pick-pockets headed by the greedy Malichot.  In a fracas, Dominique takes Malichot’s place as leader of the band and, naming himself Cartouche, urges his followers on to acquire unimaginable wealth, by targeting the idle rich.  He rescues a young gypsy woman, Venus, from soldiers after she was caught thieving.  Although he is in love with Venus, Dominique’s attentions are soon drawn to an aristocratic lady, Isabelle de Ferrussac...

This film is a curious mix of comedy, swash-buckling adventure, romance and tragic drama.  Whilst it succeeds to some extent in all of these areas, the overall ensemble feels strangely lacking.  It is interesting to compare this with one of Philippe de Broca’s later films, his 1997 film Le Bossu, which follows a similar path, but far, far more successfully.  Somehow, in Cartouche, the humour feels overdone, often degenerating to tedious farce, whilst the transition to tragic drama in the last part of the film, whilst touching, lacks conviction and sincerity.

Jean-Paul Belmondo puts on a fine, gusto performance as the hero Cartouche, clearly the star player in quite a respectable cast.  Belmondo seems perfectly suited to the semi-comic, semi-romantic role, never failing to impress as the man of action, the hero – partly as a consequence of the actor’s insistence to perform his own stunts (something which would become the actor’s trademark).

Although some of the early fight scenes look half-hearted and overly repetitive, the fights are generally well choreographed – particularly the final battle between soldiers and bandits which ends the film.  This constant action does however give the film a pace which it is sometimes hard to keep up with.  Nevertheless, this is compensated for by a fairly good script, some very fine photography, and a sumptuous musical score from one of France’s best-known  film musicians: Georges Delerue.

This kind of semi-serious historical romp was incredibly popular in France in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Cartouche proved to be a surprising hit at the box office, with over three and a half million tickets sold in France alone – although the film’s down-beat ending was generally badly received, probably because it broke with accepted convention.

© James Travers 2000

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