Le pacha

First, it is not the policier who you expect. against the same lines, Jean Gabin in a well known role and the last scenes. it is different for a simple reason - because the sentimental side is well developed, because the presence ( and music) of Serge Gainsbourg and for Dany Carrel performance. and for the flavor of a story political incorrect but solide and coherent and seductive. a film about the justice, friendship and choices. useful for old memories. and for the trip in the frame of a period, with its sensitivities, taste and options. a world. like an refuge.

"La Pacha", as a whole is OK. It's not quite up to the Melville standard of tough-guy intrigue, but it'll do.

Dampening the initial, promising tempo, unfortunately, is Jean Gabin who seems to be one of those popular actors who's fallen into an artistic pit – and is destined to remain there. If you've seen one of his films, you've seen them all. The exception might be one of his rare comedies, such as "Le Tatoué" (together with Louis de Funès) where he displays an once of versatility. In "La Pacha" however, he's more like a worn-out prop than a necessary figure, and thank God for that for if he'd succeeded in dominating the film too much it would not have been worth seeing at all.

I must also say that Serge Gainsbourg's soundtrack single is annoying: disrupting the story like thrusting a jagged toothpick into your eardrum with un-choreographic jolts, all through the film. It is certainly malplacé and it was quite unnecessary, as the slide-sound mixer was surely available in 1968.

To put it mildy ,the screenplay is trite,as old as the hills : a cop wants to do away with a mobster who reigns over the underworld and is responsible for so many deaths it's impossible to count them all.

The interest lies elsewhere ,and there is considerable appeal for fans of the French sixties::first of all Lautner's lines are a delight,one of them (about putting the stupid b.........into orbit ) has become a classic of sorts ; the cast is splendid : Gabin is true to form , André Pousse is given for once a chance to shine as the straight-face ruthless criminal who want to have his cake and eat it;Dany Carrel is simply gorgeous as the naive girl used as a lure......Not only Serge Gainsbourg wrote the soundtrack (essentially based on drums)but the viewer attends a little bit of one of his recording sessions: the best rock/pop songwriter France has ever known smokes when he's singing! Two of his songs are included : the first one ("requiem pour un c......")provides a fitting epitaph for Gabin's friend ;as it it were not enough , it's followed by the de rigueur homage by the well-meaning people who praise a man of honor, a resistant fighter , a great patriot,etc. Gabin ,although part of the establishment , mumbles words that show another side of the departed:then begins a flashback .

There's a darker side to "le pacha" ; both the superintendent ("Le Pacha" ) and his friend were about to retire and for the former it's a journey through the past,("It's a seedy part of the town" says a cop; "thank you, Gabin replies ,I was born and raised around here")

This was another Jean Gabin vehicle which often turned up on Italian TV; having decided to check it out, I'm glad I did because it's a pretty good policier!

Despite his advancing age, the star is wholly believable as the dogged Police Commissioner (the "Pacha" of the title) - out to avenge his childhood, albeit shady, friend - who's also something of an amiable curmudgeon. The film features an elaborate daylight robbery sequence - after which one member of the gang eliminates all his associates in order to keep the loot for himself (one of them is pushed inside his car onto thin ice which naturally breaks and engulfs him)! - and is fast-paced, and short, enough to never overstay its welcome. Besides, it's given a tremendous boost by a modern percussion-heavy score by celebrated performer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (who even appears as himself during a recording session of the tune heard over the opening credits!).

There's also a hilarious scene in which the old-fashioned Gabin visits a hippie club - in search of a girl (Dany Carrel of MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN [1960]) who, apart from being a fling of Gabin's deceased colleague, is a link to the robbery mentioned above since she's the sister of one of the culprits (now also dead). Therefore, she and Gabin conspire to trap the man responsible for both deeds and the film ends with an indiscriminate shoot-out - punctuated by an ominous organ drone - in an abandoned warehouse (which curiously anticipates the climax of THE FRENCH CONNECTION [1971]!).

Jean Gabin certainly one the most expressive French actor mostly as Chief of Police whom he embodies perfectly by his coldness and customary sarcasm, he plays the Commissioner Joss Le Pacha about to retirement, but when one of his closest childhood friend now an old Inspector Gouvion (Robert Dalban) was an easy prey on a Robbery, he has been blamed to have facilitate the whole thing, afterwards he is found dead, at first glance he'd allegedly committed suicide, Joss otherwise disagreed of such mindset, thus Joss is willing to prove despite Gouvion was slow and selfish he wasn't engaged in the robbery.

Soon the cunning Commissioner Joss already gathered many clues that seem suggesting straightway into the rough felonious self-called Quinquin (André Pousse), meanwhile he digs all around he meets a Gouvion's lover, the young and beauty Nathalie Villar (Dany Carrel) which to afford Nathalie's life style Gouvion was making blind eye here and there for small offences, a bit bruised about the unforeseen Joss draw up a bold plan to get arrest Quinquin.

The highlight of the movie quite sure are the phasing-out period on late sixties between the new wave of sexual liberalism attached into hippie phenomenon that grabbed the young generation, it's displeased deeply the old fashionable Commissioner that reproves such obnoxious odd behavior, moreover it was put on the screenplay trying display the conflict of two opposite ages, the colorful psychedelic ongoing at Europe against the old customs, so violent and exotic polar picture, directed by Georges Lautner, scored by a fine soundtrack for this period of time only.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2021 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.