La java des ombres (1983) Poster

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May 68 blues
dbdumonteil15 February 2013
It's easy to understand why this political thriller gets such a poor rating ;Romain Goupil (born 1951) was traumatized ,like many people of this generation,by the events of May 68 and the aftermath .But ,unlike,say,Yves Boisset,he does not know how to be accessible and how to make his movies palatable for a popular audience ..The title is adequate because it is really the waltz ("java" ) of the shadows .

Xavier is released after a seven-year sentence ;he wants to avenge one of his friends,killed by Valmont ,a killer from a far right organization;he falls into the hand of "Mister Jean" (played by Jean-Pierre Aumont ,one of the romantic male leads of the thirties!)who wants to use him to find the brains behind the organization.
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7/10
A kind of Yves Boisset's poor man...
searchanddestroy-17 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Typical of the eighties in the film making, music, acting, everything, ankward too and directed by a notorious left winged film maker. Not only in the films, and it was very rare, but especially in the novels, this kind of political thriller was very fashioned in the eighties and nineties. This took its roots in the late seventies, post 68 era. Jean Patrick Manchette could have written it, a realistic and depressing tale where the evil secret services, French intelligence, Black Ops cell, shadow power win at the end. It is a pure French story, not the kind of scheme that US industry could have done. The ending is obviously inspired by the end of Jacques Mesrine's odyssey, French public enemy number one. Watch out for a not so young - let's say medium aged - Philippe Nahon, as a nasty secret service goon.
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