Retour en force (1980)

Retour en force is a French comedy thriller film first released in 1980, directed by Jean-Marie Poiré.  The film stars Victor Lanoux, Bernadette Lafont, Pierre Mondy, Eva Harling and Gérard Jugnot.  It has also been released under the title: Return in Bond.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Having served an eight year prison sentence, Adrien Blausac returns home to find that his wife Térésa is living with another man, a bus-driver named Roger.  He is equally shocked by the way in which his two children have turned out.  Unable to turn away from a life of crime, Adrien decides to rob the mansion of his former partner, Marval.

Director Jean-Marie Poiré followed his rather promising first film, Les Petits câlins (1978) with this somewhat derivative comedy-thriller.  In spite of a strong cast, the film leaves a lot to be desired.  The rambling, nonsensical plot is typical of Poiré’s weaker films, but it is the uninspired direction and bland performances that just about kill the film.  There are a few very funny visual jokes (notably the pane of glass sequence and all scenes involving Gérard Jugnot), but these are like drops of morphine to a dying man.  You certainly wouldn’t expect Poiré to go on to realise some of the most memorable French film comedies ( Le père noel est une ordure, Papy fait de la résistance, Les Visiteurs).

© James Travers 2005

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