Le poulpe

Those among you - especially French readers - who know the novels series SAS written by Gerard De Villiers during more than fifty years, know what it was about: some kind of mercenay spy who accepted missions all over the world against of course evil red communist dictatorships, or Arab - muslim - oriented governments, all enemies of the "good" CIA. This mercenary - Malko Linge - was a handsome man, blond, womanizer, obsessed by sex, women, action.... And anti communist dude who used all the money he got from his missions to rebuild an old Austrian mansion, a huge castle that belonged to his aristocrat family. So, this said, this character "The Octopuss" is the pure antithesis of SAS, some kind of anarchist oriented gumshoe who is proposed "missions" by friends, relationships of all kind or, more often, from news he read in his district pub newspaper, at the counter, against facists, facists, fascists or facists oriented "bad guys", or rotten French " oligarches, sects, BUT NEVER ISIS like terrorists.... If he did, he would be Malko Linge and not The Octopuss. The tone are totally different in those two kinds of novel series. There was only one film - or maybe two sorry - about SAS, and there will be only one for The Octopuss, at least so far. This movie is directed by Guilllaume Nicloux whose movies spirit, atmosphere was genuinely, from the start, very close to The Octopuss series. Guillaume Nicloux could have never, I insist never, been able to direct adapt a SAS novel on screen. In a faithful way I mean. I The Octopuss novels, you ALWAYS find evil skin heads, right wing extremists dudes. This one makes no exception.

I'll have to defer to the plot posted on this site because this is only available in French with no subtitles at all. The movie is about a particularly seedy private detective (Jean-Pierre Darrousin) called "The Octopus", who actually acts more like a gangster. He goes to a seaside town to collect some money and spends most of the movie beating people up or getting beat up himself. However, somebody is killing a lot of the people he's trying to collect from and he senses a conspiracy may be afoot. I guess the detective's nickname comes from his long arms, but I thought it might come from his numerous underworld helpers and contacts who seem to be a bunch of skid-row drunks and various other assorted lowlifes.

The one bit of glamor in his life, meanwhile, is his very hot, bisexual girlfriend (Clotilde Corault, )who spends most of the movie either naked or squeezed into various skin-tight outfits. She's a pretty tough cookie herself though--when she's surprised in the bathtub by three thugs, she holds them at bay with a big gun, dripping wet and dressed only in her birthday suit. "The Octopus" can't begin to satisfy this sexually voracious female, but he still finds time to take up with another, much more demure small-time prostitute (Julie Delarme)connected to the youth gang he is shaking down.

i'm not that familiar with Jean-Pierre Darrousin , but he's very good in this role, and he manages to look even more cool the more he gets beaten up (kind of like Jack Nicholson going around with a big bandage on his nose for most of "Chinatown"). The movie kind of reminded me of the British gangster classic "Get Carter", but while "the Octopus" is definitely hard-boiled and tough, he's more comical than menacing. Clotilde Corault is a pretty big actress in France these days, but outside of France, she's probably often confused with Julie Delpy, who she greatly resembles. She is REALLY sexy in this. Julie Delarme is more obscure. Her most famous role might be "Love, Sex, and Math", but she's pretty good as a young girl in over her head in the world of crime and sordid sex. The rest of the cast are appropriate sleazy--you can almost smell the booze and sweat coming off them.

This definitely needs some subtitles, but it is an entertaining movie.

Adapted from the thriller book series. Each book is written by a different author but the detective (nicknamed Le Poulpe=The Octopus). The film is longer than it takes to read one of them. I never laughed but always smiled for the black humor. You can see it if you are interested by France in the 80's.

Monsieur Nicloux is not a rather famous. Although he has directed over 20 movies and episodes for tv series, he remains unremarked. It is better to remain unremarked. This movie is one of his best, so you don't want to watch his lesser achievements. Technically it is a thriller. An amateur sleuth tries to solve a mystery. So far so good. Unfortunately there is no plot. The hero, who is rather unlikeable, wanders, has sex with his girlfriend, visits bars and other suspicious places and talks about the meaning of life with various characters. The director tries to create an existensial film noir, but the only thing he achieves is a boring, pretentious film. Watch it, only if you want to have fun !

Le Poulpe is a good movie made on books which aren't always greats. Players are good, summary is very good too, black humor is perfect. I only have one question. How the producers have spent 5 millions $ for a film of theaters which looks very like to en excellent TVFilm.