L'insoumis

This film just shows up every now and then on Turner Classic Movies in a dubbed version: it's a surprisingly moving film from the 1960s, a period in which cultural values were undergoing major changes. The hero, played by a dazzlingly handsome and charismatic Alain Delon, is a Foreign Legion deserter and has decided, after his quick escape, that amid all the political drum beating in France and Algeria at the time, all he wants to do is return quietly home and tend his bees and see a daughter left behind. He wants no more of shooting. Little does he know.

Delon must find enough francs to smuggle himself across the waters to France, and in selling his services gets caught up in a chase situation with a woman hostage, and by this time the willing viewer will be caught up as well--the cinematography is compelling, the music score unobtrusive but appropriate, and actors backing up the central performance all give memorable performances that often cross paths in one way or another.

Usually I run screaming from the screen when a film is dubbed from French or Italian into English, all the gestures and voice qualities out of whack with the original film or actor. This one, however, works well, and I found within ten minutes I was lost in the chase; the only complaint I had was in the nature of the ending, and there is no place in an informative review to discuss it here. See for yourself--if you can find it.

This is a little gem. Alain Delon plays a deserted legionnaire who gets hired by the OAS (Organisation de l'armée secrète, which translates to Secret Army Organization, a short-lived French terrorist group) to kidnap a lawyer and hold her prisoner in Algiers for several days. He falls in love with her and helps her to escape. From now on the OAS is after him.

This is a chase film, which starts as a tough thriller and half way through turns into a gripping melodrama which is engaging because of the tender love story which comes to the foreground and slowly starts to get to you.

I recommend this film for fans of slow-paced thrillers and fans of Alain Delon (check out his work in the cult classic Le Samourai) who once again displays his panther-like agility and steely determination. Also watch out for the superb black-and-white cinematography by expert DP Claude Renoir (who later photographed French Connection II). The film makes excellent use of real locations.

I also liked the melancholy feel of the story. The lead character's desire to return home to a place where he once was happy and which now seems so very far away is touching and has always stayed with me since the first time I saw the movie.

The female lawyer on whose kidnapping this film is based successfully sued the producers, among whom was Alain Delon, for violation of privacy. As a result the Court ordered twenty-five minutes' worth of cuts which naturally made the film nonsensical. This was obviously a bitter blow for director Alain Cavalier whose decision to make a film at that time with a backdrop of the Algerian War took courage and for Delon who gives one of his finest performances. Happily those scenes have now been restored. Delon plays Thomas, an ex-Legionnaire who is paid by the OAS to guard two French citizens one of whom is a female lawyer. He helps them escape and is thereafter a hunted man. Matters become even more complicated when he and the lawyer begin an affair.........

Delon, perhaps drawing upon his experience as a soldier in Indochina, is sensational as Thomas and is perfectly complemented by the magnificent Italian actress Lea Massari as Dominique whose chemistry is palpable whilst Georges Geret is excellent as his former lieutenant who becomes his pursuer.

Cavalier has the services of the brilliant cinematographer Claude Renoir and there is a great but sparingly used score by Georges Delerue.

This compelling and haunting film has neither a wasted shot nor a false moment and I strongly urge you to see it.

With Algiers liberated by the French Loyalists, a legionnaire-deserter, hiding out in a small flat with a young woman and her father, is given an assignment: temporarily kidnap a lady lawyer who is arriving from Lyon to defend two Algerian terrorists. For his part in the abduction, he'll be paid enough money to return to France; however, things don't go as planned... Alain Delon, who really does look and act like the French equivalent to James Dean, carries this chatty, intriguing star-crossed lovers drama a long way; he displays the passionate angst and self-centered inner-conflicts (and the physical beauty) of any Hollywood movie star of this era. Still, the late-coming explanation for the deserter's sudden and dramatic change of plan is unsatisfactory; he says he loves the lady lawyer (Lea Massari), though one can see his decision to free her was a plot device just as his declaration of love is a plot function (this guy is only out for himself). Their roles aren't reversed so much as they are exchanged. Incredibly, the lawyer--who is otherwise married to a very understanding man!--doesn't care that loving the doomed deserter would spell her own demise. Is the movie saying that love and desire turns us all into fools? **1/2 from ****

And what a performance for the greatest French actor ever, with Jean Gabin, the most widely known. Here he plays a lost soldier, whose fate is lost in advance because of a desperate fight. His performance is realistic at the most and the directing absolutely flawless, never boring, tense. Alain Cavalier also gave us here, just before MISE A SAC, one of his classical part of career, before he got lost in a very intellectual second part, very "sealed" and not destined at all to wide audiences. This story evokes the post French Algerian war and its whereabouts, with OAS underground matters. The cast besides Delon is also excellent. Especially Robert Castel in a supporting role very close to what he really was: an French Algerian "pied noir", a colonist living in Algeria and fighting against independance. Robert Castel who also was an OAS member in René Gainville's LE COMPLOT. Of course "pied noir" was connecetd with OAS in those times.