Film Review
After delivering three moderately successful comedies -
Erotissimo (1968),
Fantasia chez les ploucs
(1971) and
Elle court, elle court la banlieue (1973) - director Gérard
Pirès changed tack and made his first foray into the thriller genre
with
L'Agression, a polished adaptation of John Buell's 1972 novel
The Shrewsdale Exit. In this he was assisted by the celebrated
crime novelist Jean-Patrick Manchette, whose own popular novels have frequently
been adapted for cinema, notably as
Nada
(1974) by Claude Chabrol,
Folle à
tuer (1975) by Yves Boisset and
Pour la peau d'un flic
(1981) by Alain Delon. Pirès directed a few minor films after
this, after which he gave up and diverted his talents into advertising, before
returning to helm the Luc Besson blockbuster
Taxi
(1998) and scoring a massive box office success.
In the dramatic opening sequence of
L'Agression, Pirès demonstrates
the same flair for action filming that he would later bring to
Taxi.
There are some striking similarities with Steven Spielberg's
Duel (1971) in the way in which the biker
attack on a car of holidaymakers is filmed and the tension sustained for
several agonising minutes. After this spectacular introduction, the
film's pace suddenly slows to a crawl and it becomes a more conventional
kind of French psychological thriller of this era. It is a jarring
transition and the only way Pirès gets away with it is because he
has a lead actor who is particularly adept at carrying this kind of slow-burner
film, namely Jean-Louis Trintignant.
Trintignant is never better than when playing the lone maverick threatened
on all sides by powerful forces he has resolved to take on with his Lilliputian
efforts - witness his performance in such films as Philippe Condroyer's
Un homme à abattre
(1967) and Serge Leroy's
Les Passagers
(1977). In
L'Agression, the actor gives one of his more intense
and committed turns as a mild-mannered everyman who is driven to punish the
killers of his wife and daughter after a horrifying assault.
Even though there are some other distinguished performers to assist him -
Catherine Deneuve and Claude Brasseur both make an impact - it is Trintignant
who grabs our attention from the start and never lets go, bodily dragging
us along on a gruelling and pretty nasty campaign of revenge. The film
slips up right at the end, with a denouement which feels a tad clichéd
and unconvincing. Apart from this last-minute glitch,
L'Agression
makes compulsive viewing and sends a chill down the spine by showing
us just how vicious human nature can be when the desire for justice asserts
itself, transforming us from rational beings into bloodthirsty monsters.
© James Travers 2019
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Gérard Pirès film:
L'Ordinateur des pompes funèbres (1976)
Film Synopsis
The Varlins are an ordinary French family who are looking forward to their
holiday on the Grande Motte, a mountain in the Savoie region of France. When
they set out on their long road journey, they are blissfully unaware that
they will never reach their destination. Whilst driving down a stretch
of motorway, Paul Varlin is provoked into a fierce dispute with three loutish
bikers. Carried away in the heat of the moment, the bikers launch a
violent attack on Varlin's car, with the result that Paul is rendered unconscious.
When he comes to, the unfortunate husband is horrified to find that his wife
and daughter have been savagely raped and murdered. In a state of great
distress, he turns to his sister-in-law, Sarah, and appeals to her to help
him pursue a dogged campaign of revenge. He will not rest until he
has found the three brutes and brought them to justice. It isn't long
before Varlin realises that the proper legal channels will be of no use to
him. His only resort is to pursue justice by his own means, which is
to hunt down his wife's killers and execute them himself...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.