L'attentat (1972)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Yves Boisset

Writers:

Ben Barzman (original scenario) and
Basilio Franchina (original scenario) ...

Release Date:

11 October 1972 (France)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Political | Beautiful Woman | Based On True Story

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	François Darien
Michel Piccoli	...	Colonel Kassar
Jean Seberg	...	Edith Lemoine
Gian Maria Volontè	...	Sadiel
Michel Bouquet	...	Me Lempereur
Bruno Cremer	...	Me Bourdier
Daniel Ivernel	...	Antoine Aconetti
Philippe Noiret	...	Pierre Garcin
François Périer	...	Rouannat
Roy Scheider	...	Michael Howard
Jacques François	...	Lestienne
Jean Bouise
Denis Manuel	...	Azam
Marc Mazza
Jacques Richard

Also Known As:

Das Attentat (West Germany)
Die tödliche Falle (Die Affäre Sadiel) (West Germany) (video title)
L'attentato (Italy)
Plot (UK)
The Assassination (USA)
The French Conspiracy (USA)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France | Italy | West Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG (92 min version) | West Germany:16 | Argentina:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Orly Airport, Orly, Val-de-Marne, France

Company:

AMLF

The Ben Barka affair

The precedent user found it hard to catch up with a muddled screenplay;it is sure easy to see why: first he saw a digest version (93 min) whereas the French version has a running time of two hours. And the subject deals with an affair which was widely talked about in the French sixties,but which is virtually unknown abroad:Sadiel (Volonte) was inspired by real-life character Ben Barka who was murdered in mysterious circumstances .I was still a child when it happened but I can remember my mother talk about it indignantly.

Yves Boisset is ,par excellence,the French political director.But he was still immature at the time;all the qualities he would display in later works ("RAS" "Dupont-Lajoie" "Allons Enfants" "Espions Lève-Toi" and our French "Paths of gloryesque" "Le Pantalon Rouge" ) are absent here: the tightness,the directness and above all the accessibility.His screenplay looks like a hotchpotch made of all the trendy subjects which were not even those of the Ben Barka era: May 68 and the CRS (the riot police),the guys singing Hare Krishna and more,as the precedent user pointed out.

An international cast does not help ;two American stars were hired:Jean Seberg who was fluent in French and sadly who was to die several years later in mysterious circumstances and Roy Scheider who manages quite well with the French language too.Plus all the who's who of the French actors :Jean -Louis Trintignant,Michel Bouquet,Michel Piccoli,and the politically committed Italian Gian Maria Volonte.But it makes the matters worse: it looks like a stream of stars who do not seem to believe in the parts they are playing.