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The writer Bastien (Lino Ventura), is beaten up by strangers. After another attack, a blackmailer asks for $ 1 million. After Bastien learns why the gigantic sum is demanded, the hunt for the criminal leads him up to the Berlin Wall.

As a thriller &quot;The 7th target&quot; is watchable and enjoyable, although the intrigue was too far-fetched and over-elaborate to my taste. It is pretty logical to suppose that real-life criminals go for a more direct approach : if they want to travel from Paris to Brussels they travel from Paris to Brussels, they don&#39;t travel from Paris to Rome, from Rome to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Stockholm, from Stockholm to Washington and from Washington to Brussels. Happily there&#39;s a nice performance by lead actor Lino Ventura, which redeems a lot. The movie, however, is most notable for its superb music by Vladimir Cosma, who wrote both a theme and a self-contained piece known as the &quot;Berlin Concerto&quot;. The music is put to good use throughout the movie, most effectively during a marvelously choreographed car pursuit near the end. I&#39;ve noticed that the &quot;Berlin Concerto&quot; is becoming something of a favorite during film music festivals. Possibly it will go on to live an independent life, pretty much like &quot;the ride to Dubno&quot; from Taras Bulba or &quot;the war march&quot; from Things to Come.

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La 7ème cible

The film has a very pleasant tone of neurasthenic suspense. Lino Ventura is the victim of more or less serious aggressions: anonymous phone calls, car crashes, beatings. This provides an uncertainty in the narrative and leaves the possibility to make the subject evolve: is it political, personal, criminal? And then the script directs the viewer to a track and allows to deal with the origins of the problem in the last third. The police characters are well written, with their dubiousness and irony: is a good idea and adds uncertainty, as Lino Ventura can not find help from the police. With a Jean-Pierre Bacri subtle and funny at the same time. The characters of Jean Poiret and Léa Massari, a couple of friends with cracks allow to enrich the narrative of unrelated side stories by giving density to the character of Lino Ventura, former lover of Léa Massari, friend of Jean Poiret. All in all the film is a good suspense film. Without the technological dimension that the film would have nowadays nor the action film dimension that would be hypertrophied (the film tells a few stunts in cars nevertheless to ensure the minimum of a 1980s thriller).

Lino Ventura made actually two films after this one, but only as a supporting character. And another one has never been released. This tremendous actor, we still miss, passed away three years later from a stoke. A great loss for the french movie industry. Back to this one, we think of several other features Ventura did in the past, with nearly the same scheme: UN PAPILLON SUR L&#39;EPAULE, ESPION LEVE-TOI and also LE SILENCIEUX. Directed by Jacques Deray for the first, Yves Boisset for the second and also Pinoteau for the last. This one is the film I like the least. The three others were darker, more sharp and violent too. But I like it although. Only because of Lino. An ordinary Citizen, well almost, who have to face weird events that will jeopardize his life. In resume, that&#39;s the common scheme for all the movies I mentioned here. Good time waster anyway.

This slack French crime movie comes from the end of Ventura&#39;s career. It has the best frog A feature production values, including name players and shooting on location in Berlin, but it is too studiofied and populated by too obviously glamorous women and colourful support players. Spot Bacri as a cop who brings his child on investigations, because he can&#39;t find a sitter. The imbroglio - on road action with a sinister black van, a break in, the seduction of the concert musician sister and a chase that crashes The Wall - dissolves into a large scale black mail program. Every one has done better but, even if he is gray and sagging, there&#39;s still a buzz to seeing Lino work through one of these. It&#39;s also a reminder of his collaboration with Pinoteau on the excellent LE GIFLE.

User reviews

La 7ème cible

thriller with a superb musical score

Very pleasant neurasthenic thriller

The last of Lino Ventura's performances

Flacid French thriller.

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