Le Guignolo (1980) - film review

After the failure of his recent criminal exploits, international con artist Alexandre Dupré sets off for Venice to try to dupe some Japanese business men into buying a fake copy of a stolen Caneletto.  On the aeroplane, a stranger asks him to look after his briefcase until after they have landed.  Alexandre agrees, but the stranger is shot dead soon after and Alexandre himself becomes the target of enemy agents who are keen to recover the briefcase...

After the commercial success of Flic ou voyou (1978), director Georges Lautner and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo were reunited in their next film, Le Guignolo (along with most of the cast and production team of their previous  film).  This time, Lautner had the advantage of a considerably greater budget and practically no constraints on the film’s scenario or location.   The director was keen to make a film in Venice and was also eager to return to the comedy thriller which earned him fame in the 1960s, hoping to repeat the sucess of such films as Les Tontons flinguers (1963).  The result was Le Guignolo, a fast-moving, rather incoherent, but fun, comedy spy thriller.

Whilst this is an entertaining film, it is marred (as in many of Lautner’s films) by its unbridled excesses.   With so many subplots and characters, it is a real struggle to keep up with the film, which surges on at a relentless pace, often to the detriment of its better points.  This matters not so much because, somehow, it never manages to run out of steam, and the jokes and action stunts just keep coming.   The sumptuous locations and Henri Decae’s beautiful photography of Venice also help to mask the film’s weak points.

The film includes some of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s most impressive stunts, most famously the extended shot where he is suspended from a helicopter flying high over Venice – a remarkable feat for a man in his mid-forties and perhaps the clearest testimony of his courage or mad daring.

With its mix of burlesque comedy and conventional crime thriller, Le Guignolo is something of a schizophrenic film.  In some ways this is a good thing, because it introduces an element of tension which is otherwise lacking and always keeps the audience guessing as to what will happen next.  On the downside, the two styles sometimes work against each other – for example, the comedy undermining the film’s serious moments, and the latter rendering some of the comedy decidely unpalatable.

Despite some very negative criticism when it was first released, Le Guignolo was a commercial success, attracting nearly 2.9 million spectators in France (somewhat less, however, than Flic ou voyou).

© James Travers 2002

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