Pour 100 briques t’as plus rien... (1982) - film review

Unable to find work, Sam and Paul decide to hold up a bank.  There has been a spate of bank robberies lately in Paris and one more won’t make much difference.  Armed with toy guns, the bank raid begins well enough.  However the bank staff are somewhat unimpressed by their unprofessionalism and give them a few helpful tips.  Nicole, the bank’s publicist, was a hostage in a previous robbery and uses her experience to help Sam and Paul.  She assures them that, being so close to Christmas, their ransom demand will be met and the police will be allow them to escape.  She couldn’t be more wrong.  The police have had enough of being made to look stupid...

Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Jugnot make a terrific comic double act in this inspired thriller parody from director Edouard Molinaro.  Whilst the film takes a while to get into its stride – at first the film looks more like a social drama than a comedy - it becomes irresistibly funny once the enterprising duo Sam and Paul start making preparations to rob a bank.  The film has great fun parodying conventional thrillers, and the sight of a balaclava-helmet wearing Gérard Jugnot brandishing a plastic rifle whilst screaming "Pas de panique!" is not one you are likely to forget in a hurry.   "No one is incorruptible" seems to be the message of this film, inspired no doubt by the series of high-profile financial scandals that were filling French newspapers in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.


© James Travers 2006

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