Coup de torchon (1981)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Bertrand Tavernier

Writers:

Jean Aurenche (writer)
Bertrand Tavernier (writer)

Release Date:

4 marraskuu 1981 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Plot:

1938, in a French african colony. Lucien Cordier is the cop of this village, populated with blacks and a few whites (usually racialist and lustful)...

Plot Keywords:

Retaliation | Shower | Voyeurism | Female Frontal Nudity | Retribution

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Philippe Noiret	...	Lucien Cordier
Isabelle Huppert	...	Rose Mercaillou
Jean-Pierre Marielle	...	Le Peron et son frère L'adjudant Georges Le Peron
Stéphane Audran	...	Huguette Cordier
Eddy Mitchell	...	Nono - l'amant demeuré d'Huguette
Guy Marchand	...	Marcel Chavasson
Irène Skobline	...	Anne - la nouvelle institutrice
Michel Beaune	...	Vanderbrouck - un nouveau riche arrogant
Jean Champion	...	Priest
Victor Garrivier	...	Mercaillou
Gérard Hernandez	...	Leonelli
Abdoulaye Diop	...	Fête Nat - le serviteur noir de Lucien
Daniel Langlet	...	Paulo - un flic larvaire
François Perrot	...	Le colonel Tramichel
Raymond Hermantier	...	L'aveugle

Also Known As:

Clean Slate (USA)
Clean Up (UK)

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Avenue Blaise-Diagne, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Company:

Les Films de la Tour

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Towards the end, Rose is walking on the pier and after they say in a loudspeaker 'Attention! Curfew tonight at 9 o'clock...', she turns around and the shadow of the cameraman can be clearly seen on the ground on her right.

Quotes:

[Rose realizes she is wanted for murder]
Rose: You have to help me. I can't take it. What can I do?
Lucien Cordier: How the hell do I know? Any idiot can see they were shot with your gun.
Rose: But that's horrible!
Lucien Cordier: At first it is horrible. But then you start to think about starving kids, little girls sold into slavery, women whose sex is sewn up... God created murder out of pure kindness. Murder is nothing compared to those horrors.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#6.3)" (1993)

A film noir in pastel

Bertrand Tavernier has taken the novel "TOP 1280" by Jim Thompson set in North Carolina and produced a riveting French film noir set in Senegal in 1938. At that time it was a French colony that exhibited similar social and racial patterns as in the American South. The use of color and humor add a new dimension to the genre. Tavernier in his comments about the film on the DVD talks about the change in the light in the late afternoon in west Africa. It becomes less intense so he uses pastel colors. Note the light blue walls and the pink shirt of Philippe Noiret who is superb as the village policeman Cordier. Isabelle Huppert who plays the mistress of Cordier with intensity and humor and the other actors make this a must see film. There is much humor in the film but be aware that there are many violent scenes. This is French film noir at it's best.