Les grands moyens

Absurdity rules in this grotesque tale of a family vendetta. Set in Nice, it portrays three old ladies' attempt to take revenge on the murderers of three of their family members. While they kill them one after another, everyone suspects the investigating police officer to be the fulfiller of the vendetta, since one of the victims was his sisters, and since he – of Corsian blood – is expected by his colleagues, friends and neighbors to take law into his own hands. Things get even more confused when his wife, committing adultery whenever given the chance, also confuses his softness and dutifulness as a disguise for the killings. Thus, to help him and to regain his respect, she secretly takes part in the killings as well... If taken for nothing more than it is, Hubert Cornfields last film is quite entertaining and funny at times. It's very "french" in it's looks and perfectly fits into the atmosphere of all these very "chabrolian" crime stories from the 70s. Hard to find, probably, but worth a look. Not least for the end credits musical background, a charming chanson on the pleasures of revenge.

Hubert Cornfied's precedent film "the night of the following day" took place in Brittany (or Normandy ?) ,France : a thriller featuring Marlon Brando ,Richard Boone and Rita Moreno ,with a very unsettling ending ,which was not trendy at the time.

Hubert Cornfield's infatuation with France continued with a French movie in 1976, "les Grands Moyens" from an Exbrayat's novel which sank without a trace.Here the cast was entirely French ,and probably the only one in which eighty-two -year old Hélène Dieudonné got top billing.

A vendetta story,told with a lot of humor : one of the victims is none other than the superintendent 's sister ;in Corsica ,traditions have to be respected :blood cries for vengeance.As a captain cannot break the law, his aunt Basilia , 82,and her two sisters ,both in their eighties ,will play the role of the three Greek Fates ,without him knowing it.And the grannies are rather gifted when it comes to bumping off the five killers ,helped by the nephew's wife ,who thinks that her husband is now a hero and walks out on her lover; everybody in town thinks that the captain is responsible for these mysterious murders and ,much to his displeasure, warmly congratulates and applaudes him .

A little unpretentious comedy , filmed on location , with a good French cast ,with a particularly smart denouement : the younger generation wiill carry on with the good work!