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Hold-Up
1985 Action / Comedy / Crime
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Credits
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Director: Alexandre Arcady
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Script: Alexandre Arcady, Daniel Saint-Hamont, Francis Veber, based on a novel by Jay Cronley
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Photo: Richard Ciupka
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Music: Serge Franklin
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Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo (Grimm),
Kim Cattrall (Lise),
Guy Marchand (Georges),
Jean-Pierre Marielle (Simon
Labrosse),
Jacques Villeret (Jeremie,
Chauffeur de Taxi),
Jean-Claude de Goros (Inspecteur Fox),
Tex Konig (Lasky),
Raymond Aquilon (Frankie (Le Gardien)),
Georges Carrère (Directeur de Banque),
Yvan Ponton (Tremplin),
Guy Provost (Le Maire)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 114 min
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Summary
Criminal genius Grimm devises a seemingly foolproof plan to rob the Montreal Central Bank.
By disguising himself as a clown and passing off his accomplices Georges and Lise as two
of the hostages, he manages to smuggle two million dollars out of the bank without anyone
noticing. The get-away proves to be somewhat more difficult though…
Review
Director Alexandre Arcady had three notable successes under his belt (includng the box
office hit Le
Grand Pardon, 1982) by the time he came to direct this big budget action comedy
featuring iconic actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film is based on a novel, “Quick
Change” by the American writer Jay Cronley, adapted by the popular screenwriter Francis
Veber at Belmondo’s suggestion. The North American urban setting was considered to be
so pivotal to the story that the production team quickly decided on the location – Montreal,
the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Not only does the setting give
the film its glossy, “very American” look, but it allows a number of ambitious action
stunts to be incorporated into the narrative, and if there's one thing an audience expects
of a Belmondo film it's plenty of action stunts.
Hold-up is what can legitimately be described
as a film of two halves. The first half is a classic French farce – the main concept
being a ridiculous bank robbery which turns into a battle of wits between an apparently
unhinged crook (Belmondo at his wackiest) and an increasingly frantic cop (Jean-Pierre
Marielle – who turns in the best performance). Francis Veber’s dialogue provides
a fare quota of good laughs in this part of the film, and it’s hard to see how it could
possibly go wrong.
With the crazy (and rather ingenious) robbery out of the way,
there follows a long, drawn-out and rather aimless get-away sequence which lasts for the
best part of an hour. It's at this point you need the pop-corn, or at least a big
dose of caffeine. With all the best ideas out of the bag, the film now resembles
a pretty ordinary American cops and robbers show – plenty of action stunts and an awful
lot of running around, but less plot than you could write in longhand on the back of a
postage stamp. Admittedly, this half of the film does offer some doses of the famous
Veber humour – the scenes with Jacques Villeret are particularly memorable (if only for
their vulgarity). However, good jokes are few and far between and you spend the
last twenty minutes of the film wondering when, if ever, it’s going to end.
Hold-up
is too long, too self-conscious, too self-indulgent for its own good – and the
same pretty well applies to most of Alexandre Arcady’s other films. But there are
also some great jokes and some enjoyably over-the-top performances. It may not be
Jean-Paul Belmondo’s best film, but it does have some entertainment value, and use of
the “fast-forward” button on the DVD remote control (a marvellous invention) does to some
extent alleviate the misery of that tedious second half.
© James Travers 2007
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