IP5: The Island of Pachyderms [IP5: L’île aux pachydermes] ** (1992, Yves Montand, Olivier Martinez, Sekkou Sall) – Classic Movie Review 11,849

Jean-Jacques Beineix died on 13 January 2022, aged 75.

Co-writer/ producer/ director Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1992 French drama IP5: The Island of Pachyderms [IP5: L’île aux pachydermes] stars Yves Montand, Olivier Martinez and Sekkou Sall. A life without love is worthless is Beineix’s simple message in his fifth feature movie, a tale of three men in search of amour.

Olivier Martinez plays an angry anti-social young graffiti artist called Tony, who leaves Paris with much younger Black street kid Jojo (Sekkou Sall) for Grenoble on a delivery job, but suddenly diverts to Toulouse in search of a young nurse (Géraldine Pailhas) he fancies. They are befriended by an old man, Léon Marcel (Yves Montand), escaped from an asylum, who is looking for a lake in a forest where he once loved and lost 40 years earlier.

This mystical road movie is attractively shot by Jean-Francois Robin in eye-catching French countryside and is notable for Montand’s dignified final performance. It is hardly Martinez’s and Sall’s fault that they are annoying since that is how their characters are written. Montand’s love is supposed to redeem these violent and untrustworthy youngsters, but this old-fashioned sentimentality sits uneasily with the harsh trappings of contemporary culture (graffiti artist, rap, hip-hop, skater crowd).

IP5: The Island of Pachyderms is a naïve and depressing film, though it is certainly unusual and striving – and definitely worthwhile for Montand.

Also in the cast are Géraldine Pailhas, Colette Renard and Sotigui Kouyaté.

The title comes from IP, meaning L’île aux pachydermes, a location in the film, and 5 because it is Beineix’s fifth film.

Jean-Jacques Beineix recalled: ‘Montand died on the set. On the very last day, after his very last shot. It was the very last night and we were doing retakes. He finished what he was doing and then he just died. And the film tells the story of an old man who dies from a heart attack, which is the same thing that happened!’

The cast are Yves Montand as Léon Marcel, Olivier Martinez as Tony, Sekkou Sall as Jojo (Jockey), Géraldine Pailhas as the nurse Gloria, Colette Renard as Clarisse et Monique, Sotigui Kouyaté as Jojo’s father Émile, Samir Guesmi : Saddam, un jeune de l’immeuble, Georges Staquet : Jean-Marie, Arlette Didier : Arlouse, Jenny Clève as Léon’s sister, Alain Frérot as Léon’s brother, Olivier Barret : Kronk, Fabien Béhar : client au restaurant, Sylvaine Bouley as waitress, Kléber Bouzonne : Lulu, Rémy Carpentier : militaire en voiture, Laurent Duquesnoy : La Force, Serge Feuillard : gendarme, Jacques Giraud : gendarme, Jane Hugon : concierge, Bernard Lepinaux as Canon Ball, Gabriel Monnet as butcher, Carole Richert as Sophia, and Paul Vally as Léon’s father.

Jean-Jacques Beineix died on 13 January 2022, aged 75.

Beineix’s feature films: Diva (1981), The Moon in the Gutter (1983), Betty Blue (1986), Roselyne et les lions (1989), IP5: L’île aux pachydermes (1992), and Mortel transfert (2001).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,849

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Original Cinema Quad Poster; IP5: The Island of Pachyderms [IP5: L’île aux pachydermes].