Sein größter Dreh

Jean Valère started his career with a good drama ("la sentence") and worked his way down ("la femme écarlate" is a nothing film, "mont-dragon " ,arguably singer Brel's lousiest movie, "baraka" and this one)

"Le grand coup" suffers from a confusing screenplay (the heroine's behavior does not make much sense,and the final is absurd ),a bad pairing , bad acting direction and poor script.

There's absolutely no chemistry between the principals:Emmanuelle Riva was one of the most demanding actresses of the French cinema and she's brilliant when she 's given good material to work with ("Hiroshima mon amour" ,Franju's movies, "Kapo" and recently "amour" ) .As for poliglot Hardy Krüger ,he's often underrated (see"Cybèle ou les dimanches de Ville d'Avray ", "le franciscain de Bourges" )and he was one of the rare German actors (along with Romy Schneider) whose voice is heard in the French movies.

Unfortunately,the Riva /Krüger couple does not work ,sadly unsupported by the rest of the cast ,including sports reporter Roger Couderc :the hero was a football player whose career was ruined by a car crash involving Riva .