Summary
On the outskirts of Paris, an armoured car containing a fortune in jewellery is hijacked
by a band of armed crooks. Once he has taken charge of the stolen goods, the
crooks’ boss, Quinquin, quickly eliminates all of his accomplices - including Gouvion,
the police inspector responsible for the safe conduct of the jewels. When
he learns of Gouvion’s death, Commissioner Joss decides to take charge of the investigation,
even though he is only a few months from retirement. With the help of Gouvion’s
former mistress, Nathalie, Joss is prepared to use whatever means necessary to bring Quinquin
to account...
Review
This exemplary hard-edged policier sees Jean Gabin in possibly and toughest - and most
controversial - film role, that of a police commissioner who is not afraid to step outside
the law to achieve his ends. This is a forerunner of the kind of morally ambiguous
crime-fighting hero who would become commonplace in French thrillers in the following
two decades (often played by Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon). However, at the
time, it was a daring move to see the standard bearer of justice behaving like a criminal
to settle a personal vendetta. Gabin, with his solid physique and taciturn persona,
is perfect in this kind of role, which is surely one of the achievements of his immense
acting career.
Le Pacha is way ahead of its time in other ways. The spectacular jewel robbery
which opens the film is unlike anything that had been seen previously in French cinema,
and sets the "hard action" tone for the film quite brilliantly. This is very different
to the kind of policier which preceded it (where action scenes were few and far between,
and certainly not on this scale), and subsequent films of the crime thriller genre in
France owe a great deal to Le Pacha. The way in which police are seen to
fight crime in the film is also forward-looking: the technology used by the police in
the film (surveillance equipment, computers, etc.) would only be used in practice twenty
or so years later. No surprise then that Le Pacha should still, more than
thirty years on, feel like a very modern film.
The film’s modernity is emphasised by its music, which was composed by the popular singer/composer
Serge Gainsbourg. This includes percussion accompaniment to the action scenes (lending
these scenes a certain frisson of tension) and the controversial title song "Requiem pour
un con" (sung by Gainsbourg). One memorable scene in the film sees Gabin and Gainsbourg,
creatures from two very different worlds, brought together in the same camera shot.
Le Pacha, with its striking modern feel, icy cynicism and sheer innovative daring
(to say nothing of Michel Audiard’s superlative script) is regarded by many as director
Georges Lautner’s best film. It provides a crucial step in the evolution of the
French crime thriller from the rather plodding dialogue-heavy policiers of the 1950s and
early 1960s to their action-centric equivalents in the 1970s and 1980s. It is also
an exceptionally good film in its own right and richly merits its reputation as one of
the best policiers of the 1960s.
© James Travers 2003
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