Essentials: Coup de Torchon

Year: 1981
Genre: Psychological Drama
Directed: Bertrand Tavernier
Stars: Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Stephane Audran, Eddy Mitchell, Guy Marchand, Irene Skobline
Production: Les Films de la Tour

Lucien (Noiret) our thickset protagonist is a bit of a beguiling figure. On the surface he possesses all the traits of a villain or the very least a very unlikeable human-being. He's lazy and selfish; he carries on a lustful affair with a married and abused woman (Huppert) and sees his position (a provincial sheriff in rural Africa) as an inconvenience, not even bothering to arrest people who knowingly break serious laws. Furthermore he's utterly weak-willed; hen-pecked by his wife (Audran) and her peculiar brother (Mitchell) and harassed by his superiors in the provincial capital. What's worse a ballsy pimp who enjoys shooting cadavers in the local river decides humiliation is better than bribery as a means to getting what he wants. Something in Lucien finally snaps and he uses his only two advantages to rid the world of his problems; his intelligence and his remote location.

Also his obnoxious French-ness

Coup de Torchon takes place "at the edge of civilization" on the outskirts of a French African colony mere months before WWII. Barely accessible by train, Lucien's small colorful town is a cesspool of disease, decay and crime to which Alex turns from idle bystander to perverted exterminating angel. Yet it is the way he pulls off his various revenges that is at once beguiling and disturbing. Every situation is pre-calculated and seemingly natural. Lucien never loses his sincerity or blows his cover which makes everything he does absolutely shocking. One minute he's shooting a man in the stomach, the next he's genteel with his mistress.

At one point Lucien remarks that he is the devil incarnate which while giving him a bit too much credit nevertheless plays into the themes of good and evil in the film. The story is bookended by a scene where Lucien is acting as a Prometheus-like figure to a group of African children; then by another where he aims his shotgun at one of the same children as a boy stares at him blankly. As morality and civilization crumbles throughout the film, the often felt but never seen rise of Nazism promises to obfuscate the sins of the reckless sheriff. Finally there's the character of the new school teacher (Skobline) who exemplifies all that is good and innocent. At the end of the film when war is finally declared, Lucien dances with her as if she were the spoils of his hedonistic one man war.

As despicable as his actions are however, Lucien remains a charming central figure. Like Shakespeare's Iago, his mischievousness is hidden by an innocuous face and harmless, good-natured wit. Unlike in Bad Lieutenant (1997) this cop doesn't let the audience sit on the sidelines and say "there but by the grace of God go I." Coup de Torchon seduces you into indulging in Lucien's Machiavellian plans and for an instant lets you have sympathy for the devil.

Final Grade: A