Le Convoyeur (2004)

Le Convoyeur is a French thriller film first released in 2004, directed by Nicolas Boukhrief.  The film stars Albert Dupontel, Jean Dujardin, François Berléand, Claude Perron and Julien Boisselier.  It has also been released under the title: Cash Truck.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Alexandre Demarre finds work as a security guard for Vigilante, a company that delivers money in armoured vans.  Vigilante is on the point of being taken over by an American rival, after a series of armed robberies which have cost the lives of several of its employees.   Alexandre is a man of mystery.  He lives alone in a hotel room, the rent of which exceeds his paltry salary, and he seems strangely fascinated by his colleagues.  Who is he and why exactly is he working for Vigilante...?

Le Convoyeur is a strangely alluring film which manages to combine elements of social drama, existentialist thriller and action movie, although not as successfully as it perhaps might.  It’s the third and probably best film to date from French director Nicolas Boukhrief, one-time journalist and former assistant to the acclaimed Polish director Andrzej Zulawski.

The film boasts some particularly convincing and intense performances, notably from Albert Dupontel and Jean Dujardin – the former brooding and sinister, the latter engaging but ultimately grotesque.  It is the ambiguity and dark aura of mystery that surrounds Dupontel and Dujardin’s characters which is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the film.

The combination of some unpolished naturalistic acting and a chillingly bleak neo-documentary style of cinematography gives Le Convoyeur a biting realism and a mood of pessimism which makes it compelling and yet distinctly uncomfortable to watch.  Whilst the film’s final action sequence is executed with great flair, its ultra-violent self-indulgence makes it just too reminiscent of the latest breed of hard-boiled American thriller and it is this gratuitous spectacle of gore which somewhat undermines the film’s impact, coherence and credibility.

© James Travers 2008

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