French Film Festival Film Reviews

‘Coup de Torchon’

In “Coup de Torchon,” French director Bertrand Tavernier takes a 1964 novel, Jim Thompson’s “Pop. 1280,” and transfers it from the Western United States to French West Africa. Originally released 25 years ago, the movie still rings true with haunting themes today: fate, justice and racial equality.

In the film, the sheriff of a sleepy Western town – or, in this case, the police chief of a small African colonial village played by Philippe Noiret – undergoes a metamorphosis from pushover and washout to manipulative exterminator.

Carrying out justice against some of the town’s nefarious characters, officer Lucien Cordier (Noiret) deflects blame away from himself by getting other people to take credit for his actions, or in some cases, he gets others to do his bidding for him without their knowing.

“I am tired of doing what everyone wants me to do, but no one themselves has the courage to do,” Cordier said at one point. His victims include pimps of the town brothel who are always stirring up trouble, and an abusive husband who often takes out his anger against the native townspeople – and his wife.

Translated from French, the movie’s title literally means “wipe of the dishcloth,” though for the movie’s American release the title “Clean Slate” was used instead. Tavernier said he chose the title because it gave the sense of cleaning up the dirt in society – taking out the trash, as it were.

The movie never takes itself too seriously, though, and moments of dark humor take what would otherwise be an intolerably depressing subject and turn it into a thought-provoking journey into the human experience.

In any case, the movie is a successful translation of the dynamics of the American West to colonial French West Africa, and the overarching themes of fate and justice remain.

‘Imposture’

“Imposture” is the story of another washout, so to speak – a literary critic who makes ends meet by teaching at a local university. He never got to write that perfect novel, and he endures the success of his colleagues – until a student presents him with a text of her own.

Entitled “Diary of a Madwoman,” the work impresses the professor so much that he adopts it as his own, changing the title to “Martyrdom and Progress.” To make sure no one ever learns of his theft, he kidnaps the author and takes her to a countryside villa, where she becomes his prisoner.

The movie focuses on the relationship between the professor – Serge Pommier (Patrick Bouchitey) – and student, Jeanne Goudimel (Laetitia Chardonnet, in her acting debut). As time progresses, they become a part of one another, a point emphasized toward the end of the film where a single shot shows the two faces overlapping as they gaze at each other through a pane of glass.

Eventually Jeanne escapes, and while the resolution of the plot may seem a bit quick and convenient, it has a touch of French grace and sensibility that leaves the viewer with a sense that poetic justice has been served.

The ending differs from the novel the movie was based on, “Je suis un