Body of My Enemy

I'm not talking about the kind of people who watch films like URBAN LEGEND or get their kicks out of seeing fast-paced Hollywood blockbusters. Whatever. This example of high-brow filmmaking should be on the viewing list of any film lecturer or theorist. Did you like PULP FICTION? Well, forget it. After seeing this film you will be inclined to call Tarantino's "masterpiece" a playful variation of what you CAN do on film.

Using the powerful technique of a frame narrative, director Verneuil goes on to tell the story of an ex-convict (Belmondo), who returns to his scene of "crime". He returns to the people he was involved with and ponders about the good and bad times he had. What really happened all these years ago? What is he going to do? Actually, the past is not catching up with him, he is catching up with the past.

A serious, intelligent (even intellectual) film, subtle to the nth degree, a must-see. And yet nobody (or hardly anybody) knows of its existence. Discover this masterpiece. It's worth it. No one (repeat: NO ONE) has linked the past and present better than Henri Verneuil. If you want to know what filmmaking can be about (and mostly isn't), check this out.

If you make it through this film and still think that it's about football, Hollywood has changed your perception for the worse. Tune your brain in to Henri Verneuil and this film and you will SEE.

Watch Le Corps de Mon Ennemi. Watch I... Comme Icare (Verneuil's follow-up) and you'll KNOW what you have missed all these years.

The music is not by Morricone this time, it's by Francis Lai, but it's in the spirit of Morricone. Belmondo is the same nice guy, honest, and precisely because he is honest, in a completely dirty and dishonest world, he will have troubles... But the troubles pass, and as in fairy tales, the evil one is killed, and the good remains with the girl, with another girl, not with the original one, not the evil man's daughter. Watch the movie, there are a lot of great actors, Bernard Blier, the very beautiful and talented Marie-France Pisier, Nicole Garcia, François Perrot, etc. It's originally told and edited, present-past, flash-backs. It's not Verneuil's best but is good. If you are patient, after one hour, I promise you a big surprise: Serena in the role Frida de Düsseldorf...

Over a period of twenty-five years the partnership of Henri Verneuil and Jean-Paul Belmondo produced seven films of varying quality. This neo-noir is their penultimate and although their most ambitious is arguably one of the least effective and definitely the least commercially successful.

M. Belmondo was understandably one of his country's most popular actors but this depended very much on the type of film. Throughout the 1970's his fans expected oodles of action and well choreographed stunts but this would not have been their tasse de thé at all. When the dialogue credit belongs to Michel Audiard one can be sure the characters will have plenty to say but for what is essentially a revenge thriller the piece is long on talk and short on suspense. There is a lack of momentum and despite clever editing by Pierre Gillette the constant flashbacks disrupt the flow which will aggravate those who prefer a narrative to be linear. On the plus side it is gorgeous to look at courtesy of production design by Francois de Lamothe and cinematography by Jean Penzer. Those who lean to the Left will no doubt enjoy the digs at the 'haut de société'.

Heading the cast is the always-good-value Bernard Blier who enjoyed a nigh on sixty-year career and who again excels here as a morally ambiguous character. On the distaff side it is always a delight to see the classy Marie-France Pisier, the thinking man's crumpet, wherever she turns up and nice to see veteran Suzy Prim in her final film appearance. Belmondo, suffice to say, has star quality in spades and although he knocks a few people about, only those who deserve it, naturally, his character here is more brain than brawn. He ends up getting the girl of course who's young enough to be his daughter.

Verneuil remained an excellent film maker in the technical sense but despite his later films being better dressed, there is, for this viewer at any rate, something missing.

That reminds me, I really must watch his 'Mélodie En Sous-Sol' again.

Verneuil began his career as a minor film noir director :"des gens sans importance" was certainly an interesting effort.In the sixties,he became the king of the box office with the likes of "melodie en sous-sol" and "le clan des siliciens.These were commercial entertaining flicks.

With "peur sur la ville" ,one of his best thrillers,he began to show more ambition.

With "le corps de mon ennemi" he thought he could become (why not?) a "meaningful" director in the continuum of (roughly ) Clouzot-to Cayatte-to Chabrol-to Boisset.But he is not original enough to justify the banality of his insights and to the extent that his films (this one and the next one "I comme Icare") are meant to be political statements,they are cowardly..The rivalry Blier/Belmondo's father (roughly the right-wing baddie versus the good leftish guy) is given a treatment which stands no danger of shocking or raising questions.Even the trick (it's raining photographs during the meeting) is borrowed from Clouzot's "le corbeau" (1943) The first part ,however,includes good scenes:Belmondo entering the bourgeois world is sometimes interesting.He gets good support from Blier and earnest thespian Marie-France Pisier .The best is probably the dinner where all the posh people exchange trivialities and Pisier's mother ,a bubble head woman ,takes the biscuit.Unfortunately most of the characters disappear during the second part (the number one nightclub)and when they come back,for a monopoly game(!)it's too late.

The "grammar" of the story,its only originality ,is that it features three tenses :present (Belmondo's come back and his revenge),past (the trial;very short sequences) and past perfect (why Belmondo was in jail).

Jean Paul Belmondo was certainly not one of France's most versatile actors, which is why most of his work falls into the category of light entertainment with varying degrees of fun or excitement. Over time, his films became increasingly action-packed, and long before Tom Cruise, he enjoyed great box office success thanks to his daring stunts. Nevertheless, he tried from time to time to break out of his usual mold, although these attempts were mostly unsuccessful. But in the skilled hands of director Henri Verneuil, nothing could go wrong this time. The sophisticated narrative style of a not-really-new story, mixed with a lot of social criticism in the milieu of the ruling class of a small town, ensured that Belmondo delivered a thoroughly credible performance despite his usual bravado. Absolutely worth seeing!