Le complot

Although completely forgotten nowadays ,"le complot" was one of the many movies which dealt with the Algerian war,at the beginning of the seventies.Unlike "RAS" (Yves Boisset )or "avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès" ,it focuses on the aftermath of the war:the OAS (Organisation de l'Armée secrète) carrying on their fight for a French Algeria,after the Evian agreement.

The film begins -which is a good thing since the young audience might not be aware of this dark side of history- with pictures of the end of the war and General de Gaulle's famous words about the Algerian people. The movie enjoys a topflight cast and nobody hogs the stage:Michel Bouquet,Raymond Pellegrin,Jean Rochefort,Michel Duchaussoy,Marina Vlady and more ,all excellent.Although resembling a thriller,the movie is not spectacular(anyway ,as one of the characters says,it was a fight already lost):for instance,we know right from the start which cop is double-dealing.The script avoids over-simplification .Jean Rochefort who plays one of the "villains" tells it so:"I've fought in Indo-China ,in Algeria,and finally in my own country,for nothing,and the one thing I regret is that they sent the young conscripts there"

NB:the OAS is a subject which was treated well before the Algeria war itself;in 1964,Alain Cavalier made a movie "l'insoumis" (starring Alain Delon and Léa Massari)

This movie is an underrated movie about OAS organization who, after war in Algeria, decided to wipe Géneral De Gaulle out, kill him. There were not many movies speaking of this matter: fighting against De Gaulle. Yes, this film is usually forgotten and it is very unfair. This is really a tremendous movie, very well documented, a riveting story for them who crave for this period of French recent history. It is question of lost soldiers who fought for their honor, their land, against a political system which tried to destory, annihilate them. The French power was helped by parallel dirty police, including the help of gangsters. I consider this film as excellent as DAY OF THE JACKAL, but told from another angle. Moving, gripping characters. And also notice Robert Castel's character, a French pied noir, as he was in real life, and also the same kind of pied noir character he was in L'INSOUMIS, co starring Alain Delon. Against De Gaulle, of course.

The French public must have heaved a huge sigh of relief when the Evian Accords were signed in 1962, thereby ending the Algerian War of Independence.

The aftermath was pretty grisly to say the least. In Algeria thousands of Muslims who had fought on the French side and their families were slaughtered like cattle by supporters of the FNL.

In France itself a bunch of disgruntled right-wing army officers motivated by 'patriotism' and calling themselves the OAS adopted terrorist tactics in order to de-stabilise the country and cause civil war, even to the point of attempting to assassinate President de Gaulle.

This film by Rene Glainville was released the same year as Fred Zinnermann's 'Day of the Jackal' and suffers by comparison. Glainville is certainly no Zinnemann but he is saved here by having a superlative cast.

One would assume that actors of the calibre of Michel Bouquet, Jean Rochefort, Raymond Pellegrin, Michel Duchaussoy and Marina Vlady are pretty bomb-proof and excel irrespective of who is in the director's chair and such is the case here but one feels that the film itself, despite some telling scenes, lacks the touch of a master. One wonders how Jean-Pierre Melville or Costa-Gavros would have handled this material.

The great directors all seem to have a musical sense and the best film composers a sense of the dramatic. Here alas Glainville and Michel Magne are both lacking in this respect. Magne's score is ineffectual.

Some have observed that the OAS comes off lightly here. On a personal level Jean Rochefort as Clavet, a leading OAS member, is shown in a sympathetic light and one asks oneself how such a man could get involved in this futile, ill-conceived enterprise. Conversely the slaying of a young woman who has had the courage to be a witness is utterly repugnant. As Commissaire Lelong tells OAS member Leblanc: "You are no longer a soldier. You are a murderer."

The highlight of the film is Leblanc's attempted escape from prison which has a tension that is otherwise lacking throughout.

Although far from being a classic this film is relevant now as countries are forced to come to terms with and face the consequences of their colonial past.

However despicable were the intentions of the OAS, it is painfully evident that the military, the FNL and de Gaulle himself hardly covered themselves in glory.

Samuel Johnson observed that ''Patriotism is the final refuge of the scoundrel". Even more apt here might be Oscar Wilde's "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious".