Le voyou

Thanks to other reviewers on IMDb. I picked up this pleasant surprise. The opening musical had me worried a little. But soon the clever plot revealed itself. This movie is witty and funny, several steps above a lot of Hollywood movies in the same genre today. It still looks incredibly fresh today.

The flashback is so seamlessly inserted that I watched the movie again just to find out exactly where it begins. There are moments that make you smile or laugh out loud: the movie-in-movie poking fun at the genre, the mentioning of LeLouch's another film – "un home et une femme", the kidnapping plot, the little details about the characters,etc. LeLouch's direction is fluid and stylish. The naturalistic acting is great and spot-on from the top down. I didn't know that Trintignant could be funny!!! In this movie, he is charismatic, charming, and ruthless all at once and never once goes over the top or shows any movie star self-awareness we usually see today.

This is a fantastic movie that can be watched again and again.

I do not go much for Lelouch's stuff ,which is to the French cinema what Mac Donald is to gastronomy.But,and this is crucial,there are exceptions."La Vie,L'Amour ,La Mort" which was a semi-flop ,was a sincere plea against death penalty;and there are two delicious comedies:one of them is "La Belle Année" (1974) ,and the other is this film .

It's about a child's abduction but things are not what they seem,and at a time when unexpected twists have become de rigueur ,I think one could remake "le voyou".The film takes also at a slap at the commercials and the "Thank you,Simca ( cars)" scene is worth the price of admission.Also features Sacha Distel at the Olympia ,the famous Paris music hall: he sings "Toute La PLuie Tombe Sur Moi" ;a French cover of "raindrops keep fallin' on my head".Good cast with a dynamic Jean-Louis Trintignant,who starred in Lelouch's Cannes Palme d'Or 1966 "Un Homme et Une Femme" ,and Charles Denner.

Anachronisms: the kidnapping was supposed to happen in 1965;but "raindrops keep fallin' on my head " was a 1970 song,so Distel could not sing a cover in 1965.Ditto for the "Un homme et Une Femme" (1966) private joke!

Lelouche and Trintignant combine for a deft, lighter touch than their normal weighty collaborations. Full of wry touches, there is never a pause in the mind's contribution and nothing conventional to help you catch your breath. This is the kind of movie that you wish Hollywood could make but it never does, full of layers of complexity and wit, this mini-masterpiece improves with each repeated viewing.

Jean-Louis Trintignant (Simon) has escaped from prison. He is on the run and hijacks Danièle Delorme (Janine) for a place to hang out until he can get hold of some money that he previously stashed away and make his bid for freedom.

The film seems complicated and difficult to follow because the director Claude Lelouch has really messed up on this one. I didn't realize until towards the end that what I had been watching had been a flashback. There is no way of knowing. I spent a lot of the film thinking that it just didn't make sense, especially when Trintignant is arrested over a kidnapping. They seem to know where he is so why didn't they just arrest him earlier given that he has escaped from jail? The reason is because the whole kidnap sequence is a flashback and he hasn't yet been to jail. There is also a confusing part at the beginning where he seems to be telling people he is in different countries whilst he retrieves some money and hands it over to someone else. What is happening?

However, the story is actually quite good once you get your head around the fact that you may have missed countless flashbacks. I pretty much watched the whole film as a straight narrative – because that is how the director presents the film – and was ready to sling it on the reject pile as being ridiculously non-sensical. Viewer beware, there is a point or maybe several points where this film goes back in time. Once things don't make sense, you are probably in the flashback part of the story and if you understand this, the film is actually quite good. It needs a second viewing. My copy is dubbed in English – does anyone know if there is a sub-titled version?

Unusual and entertaining, if not fun crime flick with the Lelouch touch, but here, strangely, it works. Not brutal nor gloomy. The kidnapping scheme where everyone is winner, bank and criminals, is absolutely incredible !! You'll find here the charm of the early seventies where Lelouch hired his usual bunch: Charles Gerard, Jean Louis Trintignant, Aldo Maccionne and I guess some more. Lelouch is not usually my stuff, my cup of tea, especially for two hours features, but here, I repeat, it's OK. Don't look for many moral nor ethics here, but that's the Lelouch's touch.