Coup de Torchon [Clean Slate] **** (1981, Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran) – Classic Movie Review 7055

Bertrand Tavernier’s 1981 French crime drama film Coup de Torchon [Clean Slate] stars Philippe Noiret, who gives an excellent in-depth performance as Lucien Cordier, a mild cop who commits revenge murders in 1930s French West Africa.

Co-writer/ director Bertrand Tavernier’s 1981 French crime drama film Coup de Torchon [Clean Slate] stars Philippe Noiret, who gives an excellent in-depth performance as Lucien Cordier, a mild cop who commits revenge murders in 1930s French West Africa.

Tavernier’s taut black-comedy thriller is most satisfactorily reworked by Jean Aurenche and Bertrand Tavernier from Jim Thompson’s 1964 crime novel Pop. 1280, which is located in the 1910s American Deep South.

With its fine cast, dark humour and spot-on mood and tone, Coup de Torchon [Clean Slate in the UK] is one of Tavernier’s best films. It was an Oscar nominee as Best Foreign Language Film. It was a nominee for 10 César Awards in France in 1982 and did not win a single one.

However it did win the Prix Méliès from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics as the best French film of 1981 (though tied with Garde à vue).

Tavernier explains: ‘It’s about revenge but it’s also about God and free will, and it has a lot of religious and metaphysical implications, some of which Jean Aurenche and I invented, and some of which are in the book.’

Also in the cast are Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Eddy Mitchell, Guy Marchand, Michel Baune, Jean Champion and François Perrot.

Coup de Torchon (Clean Slate) is directed by Bertrand Tavernier, runs 128 minutes, is made by Les Films de la Tour, Antenne 2 and Little Bear, distributed by Parafrance (France), is written by Jean Aurenche and Bertrand Tavernier, Jim Thompson’s 1964 crime novel Pop. 1280, is shot by Pierre William Glenn, is produced by Adolphe Viezzi and Henri Lasse, and scored by Philippe Sarde.

The cast

The cast are Philippe Noiret as Lucien Cordier, Isabelle Huppert as Rose, Jean-Pierre Marielle as Le Peron and his brother, Stéphane Audran as Huguette Cordier, Eddy Mitchell as Nono Guy Marchand as Marcel Chavasson, Irène Skobline as the teacher Anne, Michel Beaune as Vanderbrouck, Jean Champion as Priest, Victor Garrivier as Mercaillou, Gérard Hernandez as Leonelli, Abdoulaye Diop as Fête Nat, Daniel Langlet as Paulo, François Perrot as Colonel Tramichel, Raymond Hermantier as blind man, Mamadou Dioumé as Mamadou, and Samba Mané as Vendredi.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7055

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