Les Tontons flingueurs (1963)

What was originally envisaged as a serious gangster thriller ended up as a classy comedy thriller, the first in what would become a popular sub-genre in French cinema in the late 1960s.  The main reason why this brand of comedy works particularly well in Les tontons flingueurs is because it does appear so out of place.  Before this film, French gangster thrillers were either a straight imitation of the American film noir genre (the best example being Du rififi chez les hommes) or else deliberately camp send ups of the genre (such as the Lemmy Caution series).  Les tontons flinguers attempts something quite different with great sophistication and flair, which explains the cult status the film has enjoyed up to the present day.

The film stars Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier, both strong traditional actors, better known for their serious roles in tough dramas and hard-edged thrillers.  One of the film’s strengths is how both actors are able to assume comic roles whilst keeping their familiar hard man personae.

Les Tontons flingueurs both celebrates the crime thriller genre (which was still popular at the time it was made) and parodies it with ruthless precision.  Written by one of France’s best screen writers, Michel Audiard, the script is replete with some brilliant one-liners.  The combination of a first-rate script and ebullient comic performances, with all the familiar gangster film trappings,  makes this a wickedly entertaining piece of cinema.

© James Travers 2002


For those film buffs who love French cinema and have sufficient French to be able to follow non-subtitled films whilst lacking complete fluency in the language, one of the frustrations is missing the nuances with which the great French scriptwriters studded their screenplays.  I’m speaking of course of the likes of Jacques Prévert, Henri Jeanson, Charles Spaak, from what we might call the First Wave, and Michel Audiard, Francis Veber, etc. from the Second.  Les Tontons flingueurs falls firmly into this category, for Michel Audiard has sprinkled his one-liners like a trail of breadcrumbs that will lead the viewer unerringly to the climax outside the church.

Today we think nothing of blending comedy with gangsters - Robin and the Seven Hoods, Ocean’s Eleven (the Sinatra version), Une chance sur deux, etc. - but in the early sixties it was still fresh. There are several elements familiar from other films, such as the retired gangster not allowed to enjoy his leisure (later done brilliantly by Alain Corneau in Le Choix des armes), the man who inherits a child/adoloscent (think Little Miss Marker in all its remakes or Sun Valley Serenade) and the rival factions slugging it out in the wake of the death of the head honcho (Robin and the Seven Hoods).  

In this early sighting of the genre, Lino Ventura, on the verge of retirement and against his better judgment, agrees both to taking over a gang riven by discord and adopting the nubile young daughter of the deceased.  When one of the malcontents takes the shape of Bernard Blier we have the makings of a comedy classic.  Throw in a delightful silent cameo appearance by Paul Meurisse (not half so well-known in England as his work deserves) and what is there not to like.

© Leon Nock (London, England) 2010 

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