Jean-Paul Belmondo

The Brain

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The Brain, head titled, with a passer-by

If you haven’t heard of The Brain (Le Cerveau), then you’ve missed the biggest box office hit in France in 1969 and a film that the New York Times described as “one of the freshest, fastest, nimblest and funniest comedies to hit town… in a long, long time.” I’ll just quickly add that the Times is overselling, massively, and that for a good long chunk of it, until it gets into the home straight in fact, The Brain is very unfunny, mostly unthrilling and largely unglamorous. But once it does it miraculously shifts gear, or maybe by that point I’d just given up and yielded to it. The vibe is The Pink Panther … Read more

Ho!

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François Holin smoking a cigar

After a year off working out what to do next, Jean-Paul Belmondo returned in 1968 with Ho! (sometimes called Ho! Criminal Face). Having been courted by Hollywood, he’d decided he wanted to stay in France and stick with what he was best at – films that emphasised a moody masculinity. It’s got to be said straight up that Ho! isn’t very good, but it is very stylish and so is Belmondo. He plays François Holin (aka Ho), a former racing driver who is now a getaway driver for a mob. Ho was once a star but now he’s treated like an errand boy by the other guys in the gang. Secretly he yearns … Read more

1 Chance Sur 2 aka Half a Chance

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Alain Delon, Vanessa Paradis and Jean-Paul Belmondo

1 Chance Sur 2 (renamed Half a Chance for English speakers) is almost a thought experiment. When France’s biggest stars of the 1960s, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, were being courted by Hollywood, imagine that instead of deciding “non”, they’d accepted the offers and moved Stateside. What sort of films would they have made? Decades later, director Patrice Leconte answers the hypothetical with a big, fun, explosion-filled action movie full of flamboyant bad guys, helicopters, car chases, sexy women and “we’re getting too old for this shit” repartee. And to catch another quadrant there’s a fluffy plot driving it all, about tearaway car thief Alice (Vanessa Paradis) being pursued by the Russian mafia … Read more

The Professional/Le Professionel

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Jean-Paul Belmondo

If you’ve ever wondered where to start with Jean-Paul Belmondo but have no taste for the French New Wave, The Professional might be the film for you. Released in 1981, it’s a pacy, light-hearted action movie not unlike a 1970s Bond movie, though Belmondo is more Sean Connery than Roger Moore. Belmondo plays the French government hitman sent to an African republic to kill its president. En route, the political wind changes direction and Joss Beaumont (Belmondo) ends up being sold out by the very people who sent him on the job. As the film opens he is in an African court off his face on zombifying truth drugs and testifying to his … Read more