Le corps de mon ennemi (1976)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Henri Verneuil

Writers:

Michel Audiard (screenplay)
Félicien Marceau (novel)

Release Date:

13 October 1976 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Francois always despised the textile barons who ruled his local town. But he fell in love with the family heiress Gilberte. Ten years ago, he would have married her. Now only hatred holds them together. Francois is accused of murder. A hooker and a football star lie slaughtered. He thinks he has been framed by the mob. Going underground, he finds that the trail leads all the way to the top - to Gilberte's family. He needs friends. And friends are hard to come by in his town.

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Female Nudity | Police | Stripper | Flanders

Cast

Jean-Paul Belmondo	...	François Leclercq
Bernard Blier	...	Jean-Baptiste Liégeard
Marie-France Pisier	...	Gilberte Liégeard
Charles Gérard	...	Le chauffeur de taxi / Taxi driver
Daniel Ivernel	...	Victor Verbruck
Claude Brosset	...	Oscar
Michel Beaune	...	L'ami d'enfance / Childhood friend
François Perrot	...	Raphaël Di Massa
René Lefèvre	...	Pierre Leclercq
Nicole Garcia	...	Hélène Mauve
Yvonne Gaudeau	...	Madame Liégeard (dite "la Reine Mère")
Suzy Prim	...	La mère de Marie-Adélaïde / Marie-Adélaïde's mother
Jean Dasté	...	Le gardien du chantier / Keeper
Jacques David	...	L'avocat général
Jean Turlier	...	La Roche-Bernard

Also Known As:

Body of My Enemy (International: English title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Lille, Nord, France

Company:

Cerito Films

Movie Connections:

References The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Big ambitions.

Verneuil began his career as a minor film noir director :"des gens sans importance" was certainly an interesting effort.In the sixties,he became the king of the box office with the likes of "melodie en sous-sol" and "le clan des siliciens.These were commercial entertaining flicks.

With "peur sur la ville" ,one of his best thrillers,he began to show more ambition.

With "le corps de mon ennemi" he thought he could become (why not?) a "meaningful" director in the continuum of (roughly ) Clouzot-to Cayatte-to Chabrol-to Boisset.But he is not original enough to justify the banality of his insights and to the extent that his films (this one and the next one "I comme Icare") are meant to be political statements,they are cowardly..The rivalry Blier/Belmondo's father (roughly the right-wing baddie versus the good leftish guy) is given a treatment which stands no danger of shocking or raising questions.Even the trick (it's raining photographs during the meeting) is borrowed from Clouzot's "le corbeau" (1943) The first part ,however,includes good scenes:Belmondo entering the bourgeois world is sometimes interesting.He gets good support from Blier and earnest thespian Marie-France Pisier .The best is probably the dinner where all the posh people exchange trivialities and Pisier's mother ,a bubble head woman ,takes the biscuit.Unfortunately most of the characters disappear during the second part (the number one nightclub)and when they come back,for a monopoly game(!)it's too late.

The "grammar" of the story,its only originality ,is that it features three tenses :present (Belmondo's come back and his revenge),past (the trial;very short sequences) and past perfect (why Belmondo was in jail).