Hard Boiled Comedy

Coup de Torchon (1981) - Tavernier





When one thinks about Jim Thompson's pulp fiction adaptations, the word hilarious is not the one that comes to mind. Steeped in noir trappings and amoral protagonist (played wryly here by Philippe Noiret), it's funny as shit. Tavernier exchanges Thompson's American South setting with French colonial Africa where corrupt, racist authorities and swindlers, pimps & whores inhabit side by side, two-peas-in-the-pod, fly-n-shit, laissez-faire existence. Lucien (Noiret) is a sherif in a pop. 1280 town. He has a nagging wife and her creepy brother/lover living with them. He is seeing a married woman (young Isabelle Huppert) with a boorish husband. He gets kicked around by everyone. And there is absolutely no indication of Lucien's murderous intentions for dubious characters surrounding him. If it was a straight-up noir, Coup de Torchon should to be chilling when Lucien plays all the angles and later justifying his actions. But Noiret has such a goofy face and is so nonchalant, you just smile with him. All the supporting characters are superb- Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Irène Skobline are all wonderful in their respective roles. Huppert is foxy as hell in this. Come to think of it, the film is quite dark with Lucien and African children scenes bookending the movie. But It is such a fun ride and one of the funniest black comedies I've seen in a long time.

What do you do about Korean men...

In Another Country (2012) - Hong

"What do you do about Korean men,
They only think about sex."
A great lite comedy. It's a pleasure to see Isabelle Hupert running around being in three different scenarios in a deserted coastal town in Korea. Hong finds humor in repetitions in slightly different situations and awkward exchanges in English. As always with any Hong movies, it all comes down to excessive smoking and getting shitfaced on copious amount of Soju. And it's true. All Korean men are animals with only one thing in their minds.

Slow Motion

Sauve Qui Peut/Every Man for Himself (1980) - Godard

While his usual themes- capitalism/prostitution/filmmaking are still present, this film is a giant leap forward from his sixties stuff which are filled with grand, in your face metaphors and loud political ideology that I constantly find prolonged and boring (but I still have soft spot for Week End). Every Man for Himself, with its 87 minute running time is more concise and extremely watchable (whether it was Godard's intention or not). It concerns a tv producer Paul Godard (Jacques Dutronc) and a prostitute, Isabelle (Isabelle Hupert). Paul is juggling with his ex-wife and daughter, girlfriend (Natalie Baye) and work. He is a pretty typical modern male in Godardian universe - an asshole who can't express love and when he does, it only comes out violently (to be fair, he gets his hair pulled, slapped in public and meets a grisly death).


Godard's sardonic tendencies are still very much pronounced, especially in a frank and graphic voice-over conversation between two fathers about their daughters over the image of a pre-adolescent girl (Paul's daughter). Isabelle and her younger sister's 'getting into business' talk is also effectively disgusting. Then there is 'aye-ah-hey' human Rube Goldberg sex contraption- the visualization of capitalism and commerce, which is hilarious and sickening at the same time (sicker than Human Centipede).


Godard's use of the slow motion is intentionally abrupt and disjointed. Rather than using it to smooth the action or show time passing, he accentuates the violence. Soundtrack is used in the same way, whenever characters are trying to draw conclusions or about to say something meaningful to each other, they are interrupted by phone calls, sudden music, train, etc. Endlessly amusing and very watchable, Every Man for Himself is a good introduction for me to get in to more 80s Godard.