Les Fugitifs (1986) - film review

When he is released from prison after a five-year sentence, Jean Lucas is determined to go straight.  But within a few hours he finds himself on the wrong side of the law once more, thanks to the efforts of the ham-fisted François Pignon.  To pay for treatment for his mute daughter, Pignon is driven to rob a bank.  When the robbery goes wrong, he takes Lucas hostage and goes on the run.  Naturally, the police think Lucas is the villain and Pignon his hostage.  Believing he can clear his good name, Lucas does everything he can to make a fresh start, but inevitably he is drawn back to Pignon and his daughter…

Two giants of French cinema, Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu, are reunited for the third and final time in this boisterous comedy-thriller from the distinctly red-nosed pen of Francis Veber.  Cheekily, the film follows more or less exactly the same format as the previous two Richard-Depardieu outings, but is none the less enjoyable for that.  Veber’s witty scriptwriting is matched by his effective direction, which gets the best out of his two lead performers and delights his cinema audience.

The plot is typically a nonsensical affair – presumably intended as a send-up of the 1980s film policier (a genre which few directors took seriously in France at the time) – but that hardly matters.  The pleasure of seeing a lovably aggressive Depardieu sparring off a haplessly hopeless Richard is more than enough to make up for the abundant weaknesses in the narrative.  And the film’s last thirty or so minutes is – literally – the stuff of comic legend.

Les Fugitifs was a great commercial success at the time and has since become a cult classic.  By contrast, Veber’s well-meant English-language remake, Three Fugtives (1989), has none of the flair of this film and is probably best forgotten.

© James Travers 2004

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