Film Review
Throughout the 1970s, the film policier came to the fore as the most popular
genre in French cinema, with audiences seemingly addicted to slick, hard-boiled
and increasingly violent thrillers that were very much in the American mould.
By the close of the decade, the genre was proving to be ripe for parody and
the
comédie-policière was once again becoming a box
office winner, as it had done in the early-to-mid 1960s, in such films as
Georges Lautner's
Les Tontons
flingueurs (1963) and
Ne
nous fâchons pas (1966). In 1984, director Claude Zidi
would deliver the genre's biggest hit -
Les
Ripoux - but a few years before this he helmed an equally entertaining
police romp, with top comic performer Coluche giving Dirty Harry a good run
for his money, as an overzealous cop who just can't help mucking things up,
egged on by his over-proud mum and a pathological desire to follow in his
father's footsteps.
The year before he famously entered the French presidential election race
(challenging François Mitterand to the top post), Coluche was at the
height of his popularity and in
Inspecteur la Bavure he is well-matched
by another French icon of the decade, Gérard Depardieu. After
the success of Bertrand Blier's
Les
Valseuses in 1974, Depardieu enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom and
became the most prominent French actor of his generation. It wasn't
until Zidi's boisterous crowdpleaser, however, that he proved himself a capable
comedy performer, the perfect straight man comedy foil to the effortless
clown Coluche. This led him to partner another comedy icon, Pierre
Richard, in the enduring classic
La Chèvre
(1981) and its two sequels.
Basing his portrayal on the notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine (later
given the full biopic treatment in a
lavish 2008 diptych), who
was finally brought to book the year before
Inspecteur la Bavure was
made, Depardieu exudes both creepy menace and seductive charm by the barrel-load
in an ambiguous character role that plays to his dramatic and comedic strengths,
and he even succeeds in rendering his pretty loathsome character sympathetic
under the unrelenting assault he suffers from both Coluche and the film's
other star, Dominique Lavanant, an obvious shoe-in for the part of the feisty
go-getter journalist. Depardieu's funniest scene is the one in which he flicks
through an album to choose a new face for himself. He'd like to have looked
like Alain Delon, but apparantly that one has already been taken. Making
a fleeting appearance in the film is a young Richard Anconina, who would
subsequently co-star alongside Coluche in an altogether more serious kind
of thriller,
Tchao Pantin (1983).
Having proven himself to be a master of mainstream comedy, on such films as
Le Grand Bazar
(1973) and
L'Aile ou la Cuisse
(1976) (two pevious collaborations with Coluche), Claude Zidi succeeds in combining
the traditional policier elements with zany knockabout comedy, making
Inspecteur
La Bavure one of the box office hits of 1980 (it drew an audience of
3.7 million, the third most popular French film of the year). It may not
be the director's finest work (it pales into insignificance next to
Les
Ripoux) but it is worth watching to savour the rapport between the two
chalk-and-cheese lead actors. If the prospect of seeing Coluche dragged
up as a Parisian tart doesn't float your boat, there are at least two stand-out
set-pieces to get you howling with laughter - the apocalyptic climax in which
Coluche defeats Depardieu with the help of a bulldozer that seems to think
it is some kind of rampaging prehistoric monster, and an earlier, no less
surreal, scene in which Coluche wrestles with a blow-up doll in a parked
car to hilarious effect.
© James Travers 2019
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Claude Zidi film:
Les Sous-doués (1980)
Film Synopsis
Jules Clément's distinguished police career ends tragically when he
is fatally wounded whilst trying to bring a notorious hoodlum to book.
On his deathbed, he is gratified when his young son Michel promises to adopt
his profession and become a redoubtable police officer. Twenty years
on, Michel's ambition looks like becoming a reality when he is admitted into
the French police service as a trainee officer, after just scraping through
his exams. Assigned to Paris, Michel's aptitude for getting himself
into trouble soon gets in the way of his promotion prospects, although he
has an opportunity to prove his mettle by assisting in the fierce police
hunt for the psychopathic crook Roger Morzini. Dubbed Public Enemy
Number One, the latter immediately attracts the attention of Marie-Anne Prossant,
the daughter of a wealthy industrialist.
Determined to prove herself as a journalist, Marie-Anne sets her sights on
getting an exclusive interview with Morzini, and to this end she uses every
opportunity that comes her way to goad him into meeting up with her.
Fearing that his capture may be imminent, Morzini enlists the help of a skilled
plastic surgeon to give him a completely new face, and in his new guise he
wastes no time gaining the confidence of the ever hapless Michel. Mistaking
the criminal for a successful crime writer, Michel befriends him and gives
away information that will allow Morzini to defy the police's best efforts
to arrest him. Marie-Anne is also taken in by the good-looking crook
and, not knowing his real identity, allows herself to be abducted by him
and taken to an abandoned mansion. Morzini's plan is to extort an enormous
ransom from her father but this goes badly wrong when Michel suddenly shows
up with a bulldozer and turns his penchant for destruction to his advantage...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.