Coup de torchon (1981) - film review

In a French colonial town in Africa of 1938, Lucien Cordier is the police chief, a likeable slob who turns a blind eye to all the corruption that surrounds him.  His wife has an affair with another man under his very nose, and the natives – black and white alike – treat him with the utmost contempt.  One day, he decides that enough is enough and begins to kill anyone who upsets him.

In common with many of Tavernier’s films, Coup de Torchon is a multi-layered film which, whilst distinctly unsettling, seems to have a strong underlying message.  The main theme is clearly an anti-colonial one: the white colonists are presented as dim-witted, cruel, racist and generally immoral, whilst the blacks are painted as the victims, yet having more legitimacy and self-respect than their oppressors.  Cordier’s sudden conversion to a psychopath is only really believable because of the sick society in which he lives.

The most disturbing element of the film is that Cordier’s exploits are given comic treatment.  This is black comedy at its blackest – the sickness of the situation graphically illustrating the state of Cordier’s mind and, more importantly, the state of French colonial Africa before the war.  Watching this film is a real strain – you feel that you should laugh, but somehow laughter doesn’t seem appropriate.  Tavernier sets up some profoundly funny comic situations, yet the comedy seems merely to reinforce the sense of shock, rather than deflate it.

Philippe Noiret is the ideal choice for the part of the warped police chief Cordier, ostensibly amiable and unconcerned on the outside, but soon revealed to be twisted and vindictive on the inside.  It is this kind of surprising schizophrenic role that suits Noiret very well indeed, and towards the end of the film, he does appear very dangerous and unpredictable.  The presence of Isabelle Huppert as his overly willing mistress adds a welcome distraction, although her character ultimately ends up little better than Noiret’s.

© James Travers 2000

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