Cible émouvante

It is hard to believe that twenty years have passed since the release of this extremely promising debut of Tunisian-born writer/director Pierre Salvadori. It has since of course acquired a tragic dimension owing to the presence of the talented but ill-fated Guillaume Dépardieu and Marie Trintignant, both of whom were to make two more films with this director before their untimely deaths.

To call this piece 'bizarre' would be an understatement as it is a somewhat uneasy mix of comedy and violent death in which assassins are portrayed as buffoons. It has plenty of pace however plus inimitable Gallic finesse whilst the dynamic between Victor, Renée and Antoine is fascinating and their characters well-drawn. As a bonus we have Patachou as Victor's murderous maman. Composer Philippe Eliard's use of the accordion adds to the film's overall kookiness and the sharp editing is by Hélene Viard.

Suffice to say the lynchpin here is the performance of veteran Jean Rochefort as Victor. One simply runs out of superlatives when describing this actor whose subtlety and innate quirkiness enrich every film in which he appears. Following his breakthrough role in 'Pardon mon affaire' he made a wise decision to retain the moustache he had grown for that film.

Although it is not a classic, one appreciates the film's merits even more when considering Jonathan Lynn's utterly worthless remake from 2010. That this lamentable British version has garnered twelve times more IMDb reviews than the original is depressing and oh so typical.