Coup de torchon

Wonderful dark comedy with a tremendous performance from Noiret. The north African setting is perfect, giving the film a languid air to contrast with it's stop and start pacing that keeps you constantly riveted.

(LOUT OF AFRICA)

After reading about this, I was a bit surprised as to just how unwatchable I found it. Then I consulted some critics I trust. Pauline Kael: "The movie is torpid even in the early sequences that aim at sly farce [....] [It] chokes on its own unresolvable ambiguities." And Roger Ebert wrote, "[It] left me cold, unmoved and uninvolved. All I could find to admire was the craftsmanship." Glad to know I wasn't the only one.

Thompson has an affinity for characters who appear to be idiots, but are really somewhat cunning psychopaths. Casting Noiret in this role is inspired since his affability takes the audience with him even as his actions become increasingly dark and disturbing.

An excellent neo-noir whose transposition into colonial Africa reinforces the original novel's atmosphere of moral rot to an incredible degree. Noiret's slow transformation from oaf to mad mystical killer is wonderful and absorbing throughout.

I'm picturing the wicked grin that novelist Thompson and adapting screenwriter Aurenche must have donned while each of them was writing his part. It's a bitter and dark comedy whose disgruntled anti-hero either deflects his personal responsibility or (by his own account) merely reflects the all-consuming corruption of his colonial surroundings. The dialogue is witty, and Tavernier films it all in an alluring beige palette.

O problema desse filme é que ele é baseado numa obra prima de Jim Thompson, sendo uma adaptação que cobre todo o clima do livro, mesmo mudando a época e o local em que se passa, fica-se com aquela sensação de que está faltando algo... É um excelente filme, mas creio que gostaria mais dele se não tivesse lido o livro.

79.000

I find the adaptation after the book to be rather weak. I mean, why would french africa be a more appropriate place (than the american deep south) to reflect the death of human morals? It lacks the charm, it's just sad & without flavor. Also, pretty poor acting from the ladies' side. Bah, i'm stuck in the "book was better" syndrome.

a good adaptation of a fantastic book. would have benefited from a darker tone, and more hard-boiled broads. isabelle huppert was a bit disappointing actually.

Coal black comedy is a winner for about two-thirds of the way, after which it becomes somewhat repetitve and redundant, as story threads and characters are awkwardly wound up. Noiret is brilliant though, successfully charting his character's journey from stumblebum to "cleaner" (though how much of a journey it is remains teasingly ambiguous). Marielle is also excellent in his scenes evoking two completely different characters. Very offbeat and intriguing.

Phillipe Noiret as the world's least tough cop. That may not sound very promising, but after a while, when the story has had time to develop, that it is Thompson's story becomes... ah... rather evident. To say more would risk giving too much away. Suffice it to say that this is *not* what you might expect. It also has one of the most bizarre yet utterly fitting endings of any movie I have ever witnessed. It is a real treat

Unfunny and long-winded.

Tavernier's neo-noir/dark comedy is interesting, but ultimately feels empty. The humor isn't all that funny, instead it seems to just go for inappropriate and leave it at that. The performances are good but the film doesn't have a distinctive sense of style. I did like the Kafka-esque tone of the moral ambiguity. I felt that there was an allegory at play here, especially considering the setting, but I struggled to pick up on exactly what it was.