Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I've tripled the number of Claude Lelouch movies I've seen this weekend. I don't recall much except the insidious rhythm of the title song of "A Man and a Woman" (1967), which until this weekend was the only one. I was disappointed by the ending(s) of
"Roman de gare" (2007) after very promising setup(s). "L'aventure c'est l'aventure" (the last line of the 1973 movie; another one was used as the title in English: "Money, Money, Money) has some funny moments, but they are spread too thinly across two hours. Another way to look at it, is that the movie would have been more enjoyable if it had been reduced about a quarter of its length. The pace is way too slow for a madcap comedy.

The movie is not so much a satire or a burlesque of the movies such as "Classes tous risques" and Le deuxième souffle,"  in which Lino Ventura played an aging gangster, puzzled by changing times. He and Jaques Brel and three other French popular cultural figures of the time turn from bank robbery to ostensibly "political" crimes like kidnapping and hijacking. At one point, one of them says they are "Groucho Marxists" rather than Marxist-Leninists. They are the elders (albeit not parents) of "the children of Marx and Coca Cola" of Jean-Luc Godard's famed phrase.

Rather than the existential crises of Ventura's 1960s films, "L'aventure" fits more with the light-hearted capers of "How to Steal a Million" and "The Italian Job" and, albeit much less frenetic, the Philippe de Broca comedies with Jean-Paul Belmondo (Our Man in Rio, Cartouche, Le magnifique). Had it been directed at de Broca pace, "L'aventure" would be remembered and perhaps even treasured. Many of the gags are better than those in Jaques Tati (M. Hulot) movies and are held even longer than Tati did (which was, IMHO, generally already too long).

The genial criminals do not know how to relax with the money they extorted in a series of capers and are easily distracted by some naked women on a speedboat. I don't want to detail their capers or their misadventures with revolutionaries and government officials, because these are most of the fun of the movie.

The Lelouch documentary on the "Roman de gare" disc had the best scene, an early one in which Ventura just out of prison gets annoyed at what I though was his son (in the clip) prattling on about capitalist oppression. Lino (the character's name; Jacques Brel also plays Jacques in the movie) lights the Molotov cocktail the youth had in the trunk and burns the car.

Those who recognize Ventura, Brel, Charles Denner, pop singer of that day Johnny Hallyday, Aldo Maccione, and Charles Gérard will enjoy the movie more than those for whom these figures familiar to French audiences of the time recognized. The novelty of impertinent comedy about politicians and revolutionaries of the era (Woody Allen's "Bananas" and Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dynamite" are cousins) has long ago worn off and/or was not that funny in the first place.

The DVD has no bonus features, not even a trailer.

©2009, Stephen O. Murray

This is a lesser "French find," though the plot carries the gang of small-time hoods to four continents (though all shot in France). Watching it has cooled my curiosity about Lelouch's "Bolero", beloved by two of my Taiwanese friends. Rumor has it that Lelouch is developing a sequel—37 years later.

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD