Pierrot la tendresse (1960)
Directed by François Villiers

Film Review

In the course of his career, François Villiers only made around a dozen films, but he distinguished himself with a few that were highly acclaimed in their day and still hold up well today.  After his promising debut with a distinctive film noir offering, Hans le marin (1949), Villiers went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film for his 1958 film, L'Eau vive, and then the Grand Prix du cinéma français for Jusqu'au bout du monde (1962).  Pierrot la tendresse is, by contrast, one of his minor works, a lightweight entry in the comedy-thriller genre that, through want of a decent plot, is too insubstantial and lacking in originality to merit a great deal of interest.  The best thing about it is the title song that was written and performed by Guy Béart - everything else about the film is mundane and tedious beyond belief.

Villiers at least assembles a winning principal cast, with Michel Simon, Claude Brasseur and Dany Saval sparking off each other admirably and helping to make up for the lack of content in the mediocre script.  Jean-Pierre Marielle is also a welcome presence, although his comic talents -  like Simon's - are criminally under-utilised.  By this time (Le Puits aux trois vérités, his next film, has similar shortcomings), Villiers was perhaps too self-consciously trying to keep in step with the French New Wave, but in doing so all he delivers is the most vacuous and self-engrossed form of comedic entertainment.  Pierrot la tendresse is by no means a complete write-off, but compared with the director's other films of this period it is something of a disappointment.

Film Synopsis

Pierrot la Tendresse makes a respectable living as a professional killer, although no one could possibly mistake the seemingly harmless old man for a murderer.  His latest assignment is to eliminate a crook named Tony le Baratineur - but only after the latter has revealed to him where he hid the spoils of his last robbery, several million in French francs.  Tony has just been released from prison and does not yet know that the police are monitoring his every move, anxious to recover the missing money.  Assisting Pierrot is his gorgeous protégée Marie la Crêpe, who goes on the charm offensive to seduce Tony and get him to reveal where he has stashed the stolen cash...