Preuve d'amour (1988)

Director:

Miguel Courtois

Writers:

Philippe Combenègre (dialogue)
Philippe Combenègre (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 March 1988 (France)

Genre:

Thriller

Cast

Gérard Darmon	...	Martin
Anaïs Jeanneret	...	Lou
Philippe Combenègre	...	Le tueur
Sylvie Orcier	...	Picard
Jean Rougerie	...	Berthomieu
Michel Auclair	...	Charles Maurin
Jacques Spiesser	...	Bernard
Jean-Michel Dupuis	...	Xavier Lecoq
Isabelle Nanty	...	Anne-Marie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alicia Alonzo	...	La serveuse
Nathalie Auffret	...	La starlette
Jimmy Baes
Alice Béat	...	Lou, jeune
Marielle Bellaud
Christian Berger
Didier Cauchy	...	Un témoin
Teco Celio	...	Bob Green
Gabriella Cortese
Patrick Courtois	...	Le maire d'Aix
Mireille Deyglun	...	Une journaliste
Stéphane Duchemin	...	Petit Paul
Bernard Dufourg
Hervé Hiolle	...	Perrot
Anne-Marie Jabraud	...	La grosse dame
Arsène Jiroyan
Elisabeth Kaza	...	Jacqueline Repelsky
Marc Levesque	...	Le policier
Gilles de Maistre	...	Le caméraman
Bernard Molina
Guy Neuhaus
Sophie Penn	...	La copine de Bernard
Isabelle Tinard
Maurice Tuech	...	Le contrôleur
Laurent Vivier	...	Gallibert

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Crimes in the street (and everywhere)

a French thriller of the eighties,"Preuve d'Amour" bears all the appropriate scars of the time:it is a patchy inconsistent movie ,with gaudy scenes and an unbearable music:flashy and no substance.Influenced by former works which were not that much good in the first place (the flashbacks inspired by "l'Ete Meurtrier" ,the cinematography desperately trying to ape that of "Diva" ). If there were a time for French thrillers ,it was the fifties when Clouzot,Decoin,Duvivier and even Hossein were here with their firm screenplays.

The film is dedicated to Michel Auclair who died when the film was released,it's a very sad swansong for an exceptional actor who was featured in at least half a dozen of classics ,notably "La Belle Et La Bête" by Cocteau ,"Les Maudits" by Clement,"Manon" by Clouzot and "La Fete A Henriette " by Duvivier.He has only three or four scenes and ,probably already sick,he is only the ghost of himself.The rest of the cast is undistinguished and badly directed,even earnest thespians such as Darmon and Spiesser cannot play their game well.The poor plot revolves around blackmail and murder.

Because of the lack of substance ,the writers call American cinema and literature for help;we learn that both the hero and the heroine love Francis Scott Fitzgerald and his "design" apartment shows posters of "Crimes in the city" (Don Siegel) and "Night of the iguana" (John Huston).The hero's pet is an iguana called "Hypocrit" .This reptile steals the show.