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Robert Enrico's "Pile Ou Face"/'heads or tails' is entirely about men. This is one reason why he chose to give minor roles to his film's different actresses. French actors Philippe Noiret and Michel Serrault are a perfect fit for their roles consisting a strong and a weak man. For actor Michel Serrault, it was the second best role of his career in which he incarnated a hapless victim who appears to be doomed. This is why he does not seek salvation in any form. Pile Ou Face is a different kind of mystery film about a victim and his oppressor and their relationship. Apart from being an intelligent thriller about the brusque death of a neighbor,Pile Ou Face also depicts the tough life of a policeman who has been hiding some dark secrets within himself. Although based on a best selling novel, 'heads or tails' has the capacity to surprise as a murder investigation is merely a pretext for the strong men to unravel the mystery which was lurking for a very long time in their hearts.

The nagging, shrewish Madame Morlaix meets her death by defenestration. L' Inspecteur Baroni suspects her timid, henpecked husband and proceeds to hound him relentlessly.....

This is the third collaboration between director Robert Enrico and actor Philippe Noiret and while it does not have the intensity of 'Le Secret' nor the visceral power of 'Le vieux Fusil' it offers us an ambiguous and disturbing relationship between Noiret's cynical Baroni and the pitiful Morlaix of Michel Serrault, whose characters turn out to have more in common than would seem apparent.

The setting of this adaptation from a novel by Alfred Harris has been transposed from Southern California to Bordeaux and Enrico with his cameraman Didier Tarot have made that city an active participant in the plot. For those interested in trivia, the island of Talua where Morlaix dreams of going is actually fictional and featured in Mervyn LeRoy's earlier 'Devil at four o'clock' whilst the film's title which translates as 'Heads or Tails' is inspired by the name of producer Georges Cravenne's dog.

Enrico and his adaptors have captured the psychological complexity of this material which has distinct echoes of Georges Simenon and in Noiret and Serrault we have two superlative artistes who enrich any film in which they appear. The film is slightly weakened however by a badly delineated parallel plot concerning drug trafficking and a murdered transvestite which robs it of focus.

Should any proof be required that additional dialogue is by Michel Audiard we have Baroni's observation that "Justice is like the Blessed Virgin. If we don't see her from time to time, doubt sets in."

Robert Enrico was at his best during the sixties ,"les aventuriers" (1966) and "tante Zita" (1967) ;although deemed "commercial" at the time,these two works have something of a dirge.Actress Johanna Shimkus dies in the former -and her funeral under the sea is one of the most extraordinary sequence of the French cinema in the sixties- ,and has to cope with her aunt's death in the latter.Both feature François de Roubaix's sublime scores.

Afterwards,Enrico 's career became eclectic and erratic:"ho"(1968) which featured Jean-Paul Belmondo and Shimkus again was clearly uninspired and "le boulevard du rhum" was not adequate a vehicle for Brigitte Bardot's career then on the wane.He won a cesar for "le vieux fusil" ,but if the first third which enhances Romy Schneider's frail beauty is quite moving ,what remains ,the castle ,complete with dungeons,secret passages and two-way mirrors ,recalls Louis Feuillade's silent movies circa 1914.

"Pile ou face" recalls the worst Chabrol movies.Two stories intertwines and do not sustain interest: has a man (Serrault) killed his wife?Who pulls the strings in a drug affair among the young men of means?Robert Enrico,who directed the two great movies I mention at the beginning of my comment with taste and sensitiveness,has called it a day here.His two actors,Serrault and Noiret("le vieux fusil" hero),hog the stage and drown him out.Generally the French critics were laudatory as for their performances ,but I find them boring and irritating:Noiret has never been so vulgar,he who can act with finesse .

"Au nom de tous les miens" (1983) from Martin Gray did something to restore Enrico's reputation,but he never found back his state of grace of the mid-sixties.

This movie is not the same kind, the same quality and atmosphere that director Robert Enrico gave us in the sixties and early seventies. No more friendship links - though the one between Serrault and Philippe Noiret is very interesting, but it is totally different from LES GRANDES GUEULES, LES AVENTURIERS, or even LES CAIDS. No more François De Roubaix music score either. The latest belonged to Enrico's soul and spirit in those days. Totally, entirely. And the directing is not as awesome as in LE VIEUX FUSIL, from the same director and also starring Philippe Noiret. That said, it remains a good plot, that could have made Claude Chabrol, or even Yves Boisset. It is also another French eighties drama crime thriller involving Michel Serrault and adapted from a British crime novel; after A MORT L'ARBITRE ( Alfred Draper), MORTELLE RANDONNEE (Marc Behm), GARDE A VUE (John Wainwright). This one is adapted from Alfred Harris, UK novelist. Noiret and Serrault steal the show, they were the most bankable actors of this period.

Enrico is faithful to the cop movie genre in vogue at that time in France. How politics can interfere with the day-to-day job of a good cop. Not a cop that always follow the rules by the book, a cop who likes to do his job, who wants to be fair with everybody, rich or poor.

Movie starts out pretty well with Madame Morlaix falling from her apartment window. Suicide or murder? Inspecteur Baroni is there to see what exactly happened. Baroni believes Madame Morlaix's husband, Édouard, did it. He will go to great length to prove his point. Interesting twist of event when it's Morlaix who asks the questions. A certain bond will develop between the two as the movie goes. And we're in for a surprise at the end...

Philippe Noiret is always good. He plays Baroni with great capabilities. So is Michel Serrault as Morlaix. Great to watch.

Pile ou face is a movie I recommend. It's no masterpiece but it delivers what it promised you at the start. A good cop movie, interesting interaction between the two main characters.

Out of 100, I give it 77. That's good for **½ out of ****.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on November 25th, 2002.