L'homme pressé

A remake was made this very year (a made-for-TV work) in which Anthony Delon takes on his daddy's part.I have not seen it but the 1977 work is an oasis in the desert of Delon's movies in the seventies (except for the masterful "M.Klein" ,the two Alain Jessua and at a pinch Giovanni's "deux hommes dans la ville").Even his then-partner Mireille Darc succeeds in showing some emotion.

Delon portrays a man who wants to buy valuable things from the manuscripts of the Middle-Ages to masterpieces .But unlike his character in the remarkable "M.Klein" (1975)he buys for the sake of buying,of leaving the others behind.His assistant is played by Michel Duchaussoy,who serves the star as a foil,as he did in "traitement de choc" and "Armaguedon" the two Jessua works.And however Duchaussoy is at least as good an actor as Delon.

The film does not lack tempo ,which is necessary when you deal with such a subject: a man in a hurry.His attitude becomes more and more pathological as he tells his wife that it takes too long to get a child and seven months are enough,cause the baby is "complete".

Very strange film for Delon but where he is absolutely convincing in this never satisfied character role, a man running about himself or something which he can never reach. A never satisfied art dealer, collector, a man who literally hurts the people aroud him who love and support him. A man unable to really love what or whom he gets, because he is always in the hurry to get something or someone else that or whom he will forget just after. It may be dizzy to watch, you may feel uncomfortable for those people. Not a susual role for Alain Delon but, I repeat, more than convincing.

for cast, for script, for rhythm, for the humor and levels of drama. a film about a form of hunt. cruel, chaotic, idealistic, strange and without chance. one of real good roles of Alain Delon who, before be an image - and many characters from period uses only the seductive image of actor- gives a special anti-hero , mixture of emotions and decisions and cruelty , remember the aura of Romanticism silhouette in right manner. short - a film of Delon because Mireille Darc remains a delicate shadow and that fact does the first part of film not really convincing. a film about sense of life and about ambition. interesting. and little more. because it remember the art of a legendary actor.

We are introduced to Pierre, the Delon character, a man who lives in a state of constant agitation. I get the point, but Delon's acting is weird to say the least. He seems unfocussed, frantic and manic rather than hurried. In today's world he would be treated with Xanax.

The meeting with Edwige, the Mireille Darc character, is the epitome of the silly. I am not concerned with the lack of politically correct, but basically Delon tells her that he will call her by her name when she gives him a price, meaning that he calls by their name only prostitutes...

Edwige is the heir of a house sold by her father on his deathbed, therefore not a prostitute but addressed as such. Darc did not struck me as a good actress. In this film she acts with her dreadful haircut and mostly stares at Delon, waiting to blurt out her silly lines. She should be antagonistic but she just cannot pull it off.

L' homme pressé is a highly original movie based on a book that was written in the 1940s. The director uses the story of a constantly anxious antiques collector in order to make a comment on the limits of uncontrolled passion, if there are any, and, more generally, on the pressure we get every day from living in a material world. The main character, played excellently by Alain Delon, is a man driven by his passion for antiques; his personality is described thoroughly throughout the film, bit by bit, revealing little information about the collector's inner thoughts at a time, and, although it seems that some of his motives are not fully explained, the director succeeds in transmitting the feeling of stress that overtakes him.

L' homme pressé is an unusual, quick-paced movie that is definitely worth watching. Beautiful music, too.

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