Rating C+
Dir: Jean-Louis Roy
Star: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Jacques Dufilho, Daniel Emilfork
For films like this, a rating system really breaks down. Did I like this? No. I found it exasperating, pretentious and painfully impenetrable, to a degree I could not tell you what its point is supposed to be. But is it a bad film? Also no. The photography is excellent, the soundtrack complements it very well, and the performances are effective. Had they all been in the service of a script which gave a damn, this could have been a cult classic. Instead, it’s definitely something I’ll never watch again, and am actively inclined to avoid. Yet I would offer to shake hands and part company on good terms with the movie, saying “It’s not you, it’s me.”
The central character is Herbert Von Krantz (Emilfork), who has invented a device called The Canceller, which is capable of preventing nuclear weapons from functioning. He’s a bit of a misanthrope, to put it mildly: asked who he admires, he replies, “Dracula”, and he prefers humanity in a jar of arsenic. He refuses to hand over the secret of The Canceller to any government. Naturally, the Russians, Americans and Chinese want it anyway, as well as a shadowy group of indeterminate loyalty, consisting of five men literally called The Baldies. I sincerely apologize for anyone offended by this. While it is for reasons the picture above should make clear, I imagine the preferred term these days should be “folically challenged.”
That’s as far as I can realistically go with regard to a plot. A lot of stuff happens. Not much of it makes sense, such as the pond on Von Krantz’s property, in which lives an unseen monster. One of the duties of his daughter, Sylvaine (Boyer), is feeding it, which may explain why she runs away to be with the object of her affection, the titular man (Carruthers). Meanwhile, the various factions seek to get documentation about The Canceller, which its inventor has hidden in the middle of a reel of holiday home movies. Other stuff happens. Such as one of the Baldies being killed in action: the other four embalm him, while their boss plays the pipe organ and sings Bye Bye, Mister Spy.
Their boss is played by Serge Gainsbourg. Yes: that Serge Gainsbourg. And why not, if I may channel my inner Barry Norman for a moment. I suspect my expectations may have been part of the problem here. Tubi calls this a “madcap super-spy caper,” and it really isn’t. That implies a sense of humour which is missing, except perhaps at a level of dryness normally associated only with the Atacama Desert. It is far more funny peculiar than funny ha-ha. I sense it is parodying the tropes of spy movies, of which the makers are very well aware: there’s a reason someone is staying in hotel room number 007. I would suggest forgetting about conventional notions of plot, and just admiring the individual moments.