Ironic clash of cultures - a good suspense story (Rating: 4.00)
Review : This is a movie about how the French saw California in the early seventies. Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of the most famous French actors then and now, is a contract killer, flown into Los Angeles from Paris for a one day job. After having dutyfully executed his victim, he finds out that his luggage and passport are gone and that an American hitman is after him (our hero is lucky that this other hitman, played by Roy Scheider, usually misses his target). The Frenchman now is lost in the urban wilderness of L.A. But then he gets help from a busty California blonde (Ann-Marie) and successfully turns tables on his pursuers. The cat and mouse game gives occasion to very beautiful location shooting in different parts of the L. A. area, including a dilapidated beachfront. It all has a distinct French flavor which makes this movie unique. Nice car chase sequences which in my opinion equal those in Bullitt.There are beautiful little vignettes on American behavior towards crime and the media and a showdown in a funeral parlour, where the Frenchman's victim is displayed as a spooky taxidermist's job in s swanky sitting posture (Double Magnum cigar in rigidly outstretched hand). Jean-Louis Trintignant is at his best as the sulky, not-so-cool Frenchman feeling uncomfortable on foreign territory, Roy Scheider with his low-key performance is ideal as his American opponent. This movie is good and intelligent entertainment. I also liked the appropriately funky soundtrack (apparently composed by a Frenchman).
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