El hombre de Río

Honest script, great locations, a very young Jean-Paul Belmondo and a very beautiful Françoise Dorléac. An effective Jean Servais in a role that is confirmed to be negative only in the second half of the film. A very young Adolfo Celi, great actor, prematurely gone too. And a very young Daniel Ceccaldi, in an unusual role for him. The stunts of Jean-Paul Belmondo are executed by... Jean-Paul Belmondo. For the first time in a movie, he makes his own stunts (at the risk of losing his life...) To be seen anytime again and again!

This movie is sophisticated colorful European and fun in style. The action grabs you right away and takes you on a fantastic roller coaster ride in some of the most seductive looking cities ever filmed, Rio and Brasilia. Belmondo is supposed to be on a weekend pass and goes AWOL to save his girl who is kidnapped (from Orly Airport in Paris) and dragged to Brazil where she becomes entangled with thieves and stolen Incan statues. It's no wonder that DeBroca's 1967 "King of Hearts" is many people's favorite film of all time. Jean Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorleac are most engaging and attractive performers. Sadly she died not long after this film was released.

A film that can be watched many times and one that has been a family favorite of ours for years. While the plot may not be that sophisticated, Belmondo is remarkable and the pace of the film is perfect for the light-comedy/action genre. If you don't speak French, the film is still a wonderful treat with subtitles. The theme song in Portuguese is haunting and memorable.

I was a bit flummoxed by the references to 'That Man From Rio' as a "James Bond parody", expecting it to be something like Dean Martin's Matt Helm movies or James Coburn as Flint. It's NOTHING like that. It's actually closer to some of Hitchcock's "average guy"-caught-in-a-web-of-intrigue pictures like 'The 39 Steps' or 'North By Northwest'. Anyway, however you label it it's a really entertaining romantic adventure movie that most people should enjoy. Two things really help it - the locales and the cast. Jean-Paul Belmondo ('Breathless') is one of the coolest and most charismatic leading men to ever stand in front of a movie camera, and he really makes this movie worth watching. It also doesn't hurt that the supporting cast includes the beautiful Francoise Dorleac (Polanski's 'Cul-de-sac') and 'Rififi's Jean Servais. I can't argue that this is anything but pure entertainment, but for what it is it is difficult to beat, and if you just want to have some fun then 'That Man From Rio' is highly recommended.

Jean-Paul Belmondo died recently,* so I decided to watch one of his most famous movies. What an experience! "L'homme de Rio" ("That Man from Rio" in English) has just about everything! Obviously, the movie borrowed a lot of stuff from Tintin books, but isn't all art borrowed from something or other? Philippe de Broca's Academy Award-nominated movie is a great romp from start to finish. I suspect that, had Françoise Dorléac not died a car wreck at the age of twenty-five, she would've gone on to become just as great an actress as her younger sister (Catherine Deneuve).

Anyway, a fun movie with some great shots of Rio de Janeiro. And is that soundtrack to die for or what?

*As it happened, Belmondo died right after I saw his movie "Leon Morin, Priest".