Pile ou face (1980)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Robert Enrico

Writers:

Michel Audiard (writer)
Robert Enrico (writer)

Release Date:

30 August 1980 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Sex | Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Philippe Noiret	...	Inspecteur Louis Baroni
Michel Serrault	...	Edouard Morlaix
Dorothée	...	Laurence Bertil
André Falcon	...	Lampertuis
Bernard Le Coq	...	Philippe, Le gendre de Baroni
Gaëlle Legrand	...	Zepp
Fred Personne	...	L'ami de Baroni
Pierre Arditi	...	Pierre Larrieu
Jean Desailly	...	Bourgon-Massenet
Antoinette Moya	...	Madame Morlaix
Guilhaine Dubos	...	La fille de Baroni
Jacqueline Doyen
Jacques Maury	...	L'avocat
Daniel Darion
Jean-Pierre Helbert

Also Known As:

Heads or Tails

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Antenne-2

When the actors overplay

Robert Enrico was at his best during the sixties ,"les aventuriers" (1966) and "tante Zita" (1967) ;although deemed "commercial" at the time,these two works have something of a dirge.Actress Johanna Shimkus dies in the former -and her funeral under the sea is one of the most extraordinary sequence of the French cinema in the sixties- ,and has to cope with her aunt's death in the latter.Both feature François de Roubaix's sublime scores.

Afterwards,Enrico 's career became eclectic and erratic:"ho"(1968) which featured Jean-Paul Belmondo and Shimkus again was clearly uninspired and "le boulevard du rhum" was not adequate a vehicle for Brigitte Bardot's career then on the wane.He won a cesar for "le vieux fusil" ,but if the first third which enhances Romy Schneider's frail beauty is quite moving ,what remains ,the castle ,complete with dungeons,secret passages and two-way mirrors ,recalls Louis Feuillade's silent movies circa 1914.

"Pile ou face" recalls the worst Chabrol movies.Two stories intertwines and do not sustain interest: has a man (Serrault) killed his wife?Who pulls the strings in a drug affair among the young men of means?Robert Enrico,who directed the two great movies I mention at the beginning of my comment with taste and sensitiveness,has called it a day here.His two actors,Serrault and Noiret("le vieux fusil" hero),hog the stage and drown him out.Generally the French critics were laudatory as for their performances ,but I find them boring and irritating:Noiret has never been so vulgar,he who can act with finesse .

"Au nom de tous les miens" (1983) from Martin Gray did something to restore Enrico's reputation,but he never found back his state of grace of the mid-sixties.