Directed by:
Bertrand TavernierCinematography:
Pierre-William GlennComposer:
Philippe SardeCast:
Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Stéphane Audran, Eddy Mitchell, Irène Skobline, Guy Marchand, Michel Beaune, Mamadou Dioumé (more)VOD (1)
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It is 1938 in the French West Africa village of Bourkassa and the one-man police force is tired of being a doormat. In this darkly comic adaptation of Jim Thompson's "POP. 1280," hapless officer Lucien Cordier decides to take the law back into his own rightful hands and rid the town of its human waste. (official distributor synopsis)
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By placing the story in a West African French colonial possession on the eve of World War II and, above all, with the peculiar, twisted philosophy of Lucien Cordier as the main protagonist in the role of a policeman who has decided to adapt laws and ethics to his own needs, this could have been considered as essential a film as Taxi Driver or Fight Club. That did not happen because, even with the best intentions, Bertrand Tavernier cannot be regarded as a directorial genius capable of imprinting a sense of uniqueness and creating an atmosphere for the story. All of his films, with the sole exception which, however, was not related to directing, have so far earned three stars from me, and Coup de Torchon will be no exception. It is more so an interesting film rather than a truly good one, and even the presence of Noiret or Isabelle Huppert will not make me give it a better review. Overall impression: 65%.
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