Michel Audiard

The Old Guard aka Les Vieux de la Vieille

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Jean-Marie Péjat fixes a bicycle

You might not have seen 1960’s The Old Guard (aka Les Vieux de la Vieille), a charming French comedy of manners of the old school. But you might have seen Last of the Summer Wine, the British comedy currently holding the record for longest-running TV sitcom in the world. Since it ran 1973 to 2010 it’s a record in not much danger of being broken any time soon. They are almost identical in plot, tone and basic premise. Three old codgers, one of whom hasn’t seen the others for many years, reunite to reminisce, bemoan the lack of respect oldsters command these days and indulge in the sort of childish larks that exasperate … Read more

Les Barbouzes

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The spies assembled

It’s called The Great Spy Chase in English, which captures the caper/shenanigans nature of this French film whose original title is Les Barbouzes. “Barbe” is the French word for beard (hence barber in English), which is what spies in ye olden times were supposed to hide behind, hence the French slang term for them – barbouzes. That all cleared up here we are in 1964 two years on from James Bond’s first screen outing in Dr No and one year on from The Pink Panther, which is closer in spirit to this comedy of bumbling ineptitude – about a French spy on a mission to return a dead arms dealer’s body to his … 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

Les Tontons Flingueurs aka Crooks in Clover

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Lino Ventura as Fernand

There’s something about 1963’s Les Tontons Flingueurs as a title that sounds wackier, funnier, just better than the usual English translation – Crooks in Clover. The film also goes by the name Monsieur Gangster but the original French literally translates as Gunslinging Uncles. Tontons Flingueurs is better because it sounds a bit ridiculous, and that’s really what’s going on in this amusing French drama from 1963, often described as a comedy but only properly funny if you speak French. Michel Audiard’s screenplays deal heavily in slang and wordplay and neither of those quite survive the translation into English. The film has a real cachet in France; elsewhere barely any. If like me you’re … Read more