French auteur Bertrand Tavernier transposes Jim Thompson's gritty novel Pop.1280 from the American South to French colonial West Africa. Philippe Noiret is Lucien Cordier, an ineffectual and much put-upon cop in a small dusty town in Senegal just before Word War II. His shrewish wife (Stephane Audran) openly mocks him by cohabiting under their roof with her 'brother' and the other townsfolk despise him for his unwillingness to stand up for himself. But one day without warning, Cordier sheds his cloak of cowardice and transforms into a sort of avenging angel, picking off his tormentors one by one while maintaining an air of studied innocence.
The director beautifully captures the ambience of moral corruption and ennui under colonial rule. The town is flat, dusty and without any natural beauty. The majority of the ruling whites are openly racist and consider the natives as little more than vermin. Their women are no better. Though there are flashes of humour, an air of spiritual damnation hangs over the film like a perpetual shroud. There are no redeeming characters. Though, in the end, Cordier tries to kindle a relationship with the virginal schoolteacher Anne, he might already have been too late to save his soul.
This is a superior, slow-burn crime drama with fine performances from Noiret, Isabelle Huppert (as his mistress) and Stephane Audran. I give it a solid 8.
The director beautifully captures the ambience of moral corruption and ennui under colonial rule. The town is flat, dusty and without any natural beauty. The majority of the ruling whites are openly racist and consider the natives as little more than vermin. Their women are no better. Though there are flashes of humour, an air of spiritual damnation hangs over the film like a perpetual shroud. There are no redeeming characters. Though, in the end, Cordier tries to kindle a relationship with the virginal schoolteacher Anne, he might already have been too late to save his soul.
This is a superior, slow-burn crime drama with fine performances from Noiret, Isabelle Huppert (as his mistress) and Stephane Audran. I give it a solid 8.