(1981)
3.5
Elbert Ventura
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.
Coup de Torchon on AllMovie
Coup de Torchon (1981)
