Coup de torchon (1981)

Director:

Bertrand Tavernier

Writers:

Jean Aurenche (writer)
Bertrand Tavernier (writer)

Release Date:

4 November 1981 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Plot:

1938, in a French african colony. Lucien Cordier is the cop of this village, populated with blacks and a few whites (usually racialist and lustful)...

Plot Keywords:

Pimp | Foreign Language Adaptation | Africa | Voyeurism | Retribution

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Philippe Noiret	...	Lucien Cordier
Isabelle Huppert	...	Rose Mercaillou
Jean-Pierre Marielle	...	Le Peron et son frère L'adjudant Georges Le Peron
Stéphane Audran	...	Huguette Cordier
Eddy Mitchell	...	Nono - l'amant demeuré d'Huguette
Guy Marchand	...	Marcel Chavasson
Irène Skobline	...	Anne - la nouvelle institutrice
Michel Beaune	...	Vanderbrouck - un nouveau riche arrogant
Jean Champion	...	Priest
Victor Garrivier	...	Mercaillou
Gérard Hernandez	...	Leonelli
Abdoulaye Diop	...	Fête Nat - le serviteur noir de Lucien
Daniel Langlet	...	Paulo - un flic larvaire
François Perrot	...	Le colonel Tramichel
Raymond Hermantier	...	L'aveugle

Also Known As:

Clean Slate (USA)
Clean Up (UK)

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Avenue Blaise-Diagne, Saint-Louis, Senegal

Company:

Les Films de la Tour

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Towards the end, Rose is walking on the pier and after they say in a loudspeaker 'Attention! Curfew tonight at 9 o'clock...', she turns around and the shadow of the cameraman can be clearly seen on the ground on her right.

Quotes:

[Rose realizes she is wanted for murder]
Rose: You have to help me. I can't take it. What can I do?
Lucien Cordier: How the hell do I know? Any idiot can see they were shot with your gun.
Rose: But that's horrible!
Lucien Cordier: At first it is horrible. But then you start to think about starving kids, little girls sold into slavery, women whose sex is sewn up... God created murder out of pure kindness. Murder is nothing compared to those horrors.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#6.3)" (1993)

Africa Screams

Looking at the slew of negative comments that this movie has racked up I can't help wondering what drew these people to it in the first place. What drew ME were the names attached to it, Tavernier, one of THE great contemporary French directors, Phillipe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert, two all-time GREAT French actors. Okay, everyone has the occasional off day but when you get to THIS level of writing, acting, directing, even the bad ones eclipse by a country mile the BEST of such joke talents as Godard and Tarentino and this particular entry is far from bad if anybody asks you. So I'm left with the inescapable conclusion that all these whingers must have wandered into the movie theater thinking they were going to see Gidget Goes Hawaian or How To Stuff A Wild Bikini in which case it is easy to understand their misgivings. For the record this is an excellent example of The Biter Bit aka The Worm Turns and all the ingredients are out of the right bottle and come together in a heady and satisfying brew. 8/10