Main Cast: Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Stéphane Audran, Eddy Mitchell
Release Year: 1981
Country: FR
Run Time: 128 minutes
Plot
Based on pulp master Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280, Bertrand Tavernier's Coup de Torchon is a sardonic thriller that remains true to its source's spirit, even as it transposes the action from the American South to colonial West Africa. Lucien (Philippe Noiret) is the bumbling police chief of Bourkasa, a dusty outpost in rural Senegal. Badgered by local thugs, Lucien initially comes across as a pathetic oaf unable to stand up for himself. Things at home are scarcely better, as Lucien finds himself harried by his nagging wife, Huguette (Stéphane Audran), who is carrying on an affair with a man she claims to be her brother (Eddy Mitchell). Without warning, Lucien embarks on a nonchalant killing spree, murdering everyone who has ever mistreated him. As he sets about "cleaning the slate," Lucien intensifies his affair with ditsy Rose (Isabelle Huppert), all the while pining for the newly arrived schoolteacher, Anne (Irene Skobline). Remaining above suspicion even as bodies pile up, the seemingly witless Lucien gradually develops a twisted logic for his actions, animating his crusade with an evangelical purpose. By movie's end, Tavernier leaves little room for redemption, leaving the joyless Lucien mired in a moral quagmire of his own making. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
Review
French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier based this well-received 1981 release on Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280. Tavernier moved the action from 1910s America to 1930s Africa, but the themes and spirit of the original remain intact. Audacious and intermittently brilliant, Coup de Torchon charts the compelling trajectory of Lucien (Philippe Noiret), the dimwitted police chief of a sparsely populated rural outpost in West Africa. Initially portrayed as an inept fool, Lucien embarks on a violent crusade of justice and retribution against the town's thugs and his personal enemies. As his crimes mount, the outwardly dense dolt reveals a more calculating awareness, constructing a dubious rationale for his brand of dispassionate fascism. Bleak as it is, and considering the seriousness with which it poses moral questions, the movie is not as chilling as it should be. Coup de Torchon's horror is at once underscored and leavened by its broad, black humor. Tavernier peoples the film with cartoonish grotesques, be it Lucien's banshee of a wife (Stéphane Audran), her childlike brother/lover (Eddy Mitchell), or the bullying pimps that pester Lucien. Given that its main theme is the power of specious moral logic, it's entirely appropriate that Tavernier set his movie in colonial Africa. The setting only amplifies Thompson's corrosive world view, even as it supplies a potent historical correlative for Lucien's incoherent ideas about good and evil. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) is an ineffectual local constable with a cheating wife and laughable job. He accepts condescension from his superiors and his wife with good humor, as his antisocial personality allows him to tolerate such abuse. However, he soon realizes that he can use his position to gain vengeance with impunity, and he starts to kill everyone who has regarded him as a fool. After numerous trysts and murders, his pathology catches up with him in the film's climax.
