Le gros coup (1964)
5/10
A confusing mess further undermined by amateurish male lead
17 October 2022
Why a German actor (Hardy Kruger) with a poor pronunciation of French should be picked as the male lead of this French-spoken film, beats me. Why, with so many fine male French actors who could have much more convincingly played the part, he should get the part, beats me. Why HK portrays a soccer player when he could not kick, let alone control, a ball to save his life... her... beats me. It sets the mood for a completely unbelievable and confusing mess of a film.

Script and direction by Jean Valère. As noted earlier, script is hard to believe. Direction scores a little bit better, if you leave Kruger's amateurish performance out of it. Of course, you cannot do that, so direction has to get a poor mark, too.

Pedestrian cinematography. Fighting sequence between Willes and Arland is just so poorly done that I cannot think of harsh enough adjectives to label it.

Stars for Emmanuelle Riva's performance (despite ludicrously bad support from the other lead); the surprisingly ironical and yet moral ending; and credible sexual rapport between leads.

Waste of time, to be honest.
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