Film Review
After having made one successful thriller together -
Le
Silencieux (1973) - director Claude Pinoteau and actor Lino
Ventura collaborated on a comedy -
La Gifle (1974) - and two
subsequent thrillers -
L'Homme en
colère and
La Septième cible
(1984). The second Pinoteau-Ventura thriller stands apart from
the other two in that it was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, and has a far
more American feel to it - more action oriented, far less character
driven. It's grittier, more violent and more energetic than most
thrillers that were being made in France at the time, but it still
retains something of the classic French policier. Pinoteau's
direction is slick and confident, but the predominance of actions
scenes reveals a distinct paucity of imagination and substance in a
somewhat formulaic plot.
Ventura, as ever, has a commanding presence, but it is his wrestler's
physique, not his skill as an actor, that Pinoteau most relies on, and
this is to the film's detriment. Every other scene seems to end
either in a full-on car chase or a vicious fist fight, and you're bound to end up
thinking Montreal is the gangster capital of the world. The
taciturn tough guy Ventura makes an effective contrast with the
vivacious Angie Dickinson, who does her best to make her thinly
sketched character believable. The biggest treat the film offers
is Donald Pleasence showing up intermittently as shady go-between - such a shame he
was not given a much bigger role in the proceedings. Helped by
Claude Bolling's mawkish score, the film ends on a toe-curlingly
saccharine note, which looks suspiciously as if it was intended more for an American
audience.
L'Homme en
colère is a well-paced and absorbing thriller, but its
lack of depth and originality ensures that, once seen, it is very
quickly forgotten.
© James Travers, Willems Henri 2015
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Next Claude Pinoteau film:
La Boum (1980)
Film Synopsis
When he is informed of the death of his son Julien, Romain Dupré
goes to Canada to identify the body. The dead man turns out not
be Dupré's son, but a stranger who, for some reason, is carrying
Julien's identification papers. Dupré soon discovers that
his son has been involved in people trafficking, smuggling illegal
immigrants into the United States from Canada. The dead man is
one of Julien's latest clients, who died in a shoot-out at a police
checkpoint. Currently, Julien is on the run, pursued not only by
the police but by gangsters who are determined to recover some money
that belongs to them...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.