Les Barbouzes

Fine movie very fun and awesome exquisite turnabouts.

You can do nothing but laugh when you watch this one : spies from different countries try to get some plans owned by a rich man who died recently. The most important thing is the actors playing : this latter are at they best (Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Francis Blanche, Noel Roquevert, Robert Darban). Watch the movie on french to appreciate the actors speaking talent !

...and I'm sorry I did, because this one is just so weak. Script by Audiard, direction by Lautner, male lead Ventura: the winning combination that made Les Tontons flingueurs so enjoyable fails miserably here. It's a spy story, see, and the French, Italian, Swiss and Russian spies, plus a whole bunch of other people are trying to kill each other to come up with the formulas for superweapons. The action is drawn out and repetitive, the corpses just mount up and the audience is not charmed by the humour (there are almost no laughs in this).

Lino Ventura and Mireille Darc as the odd couple are at least fun to look at. I have always been a fan of hers; love those pert eyes and big giblet lips that are bigger than Mick Jagger's. Watch for Jess Hahn as the American spy, he's a funny guy.

I pick this movie for 3 reasons : 1) to plug my missing years in cinema history (at least, one movie each year since cinema has been invented) and here it's 1964. 2) to get back to my roots : i'm French but mostly i watch American productions thus i'm nearly ignorant about my culture ! 3) because movies allows time travels : today, the movies are so bad that it's better to search into the past to find original story, talented cast…

So here we have a black and white comedy about international spies during the cold war. I can't deny that there is some really funny moments, true inspiration and a love for the language. As seen in Le Professionnel, Lautner is a dynamic director and who practices a clear editing : we know where we go, we understand what happens even if it's an action movie with guns and fights !

However, the movie has the feel of a retirement home : the 4 spies are rather old men (almost 50 years) and whatever their talent, i can't believe Blier nor Blanche as active agents ! This heavy team meets in an old German castle and one more time, it smells old age, aggravated by the fact that they stay mostly inside it…

In short, the movie is worth of watching but unlikely to be in my classics

A tipically popular French movie of the 60s with great actor, great dialogues and a directing, if not very clean, efficient in spite of modest means. However,scenario is flatter than in others Audiard's movies and some scenes are too long to be funny. Movie as a whole is endless and a sharper, more concise style would have been benefic to the drama. I still recommend to see this movie, which remains creative, and which is a real, in opposition with e.g. "Austin Powers", a parody of a parody (James Bonds) only based on gimmiks. "Les Barbouzes" is a stand-alone movie, a piece in the great wall of cine-history, which is not Mike Meier's art.