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The Worst Film Ever

Admirable film.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I watched this movie in the theater, as a kid, in original time it came out. There were 2 showrooms with daily projections each, every 2 hours, one on odd the other on even hours. Ever since I'm not sure about the ending. Namely, was he really ... BTW those two ..., or he made a deal with those Canadian ..., so everybody would ..., while he ... enjoy ... with his ...Am I expecting too much from this movie? Never the less, it's one of my private cults, and these last couple of lines are just to conform to IMDb minimum No. of lines rule. But it seams they will never get enough of it. Blah , Blah ...

I'll admit that the movie does tend to come apart in its concluding Canadian sequences, but they are so extravagantly handled and come to such a unique finish, this is only a minor flaw in this very superior suspense outing. Mind you, the plot does have some holes, but the pace is so fast and the atmosphere so intense, few will notice. I'll also admit that – with the notable exception of the cliff-top scenes as well as most of the other Dubois footage – the film is not as noirish in its atmosphere as it might be. For some reason, possibly to contrast with Montand's heavily dramatic hero, Balmer's police detective is presented in rather a light manner (no shadows in his scenes) and is likewise enacted in a far less dramatic style (almost flippant, in fact). Although outclassed by the venomously neurotic Dubois, Canadian actress Carole Laure is perfectly cast as the nice girl, the innocent in Montand's heavily dramatic life.Some critics would argue that the hero is too inventive for his own good and far too imaginative to sustain the reality of the plot. Nonetheless, thanks to Corneau's excitingly incisive direction, and his suspenseful script (co-written with Daniel Boulanger), plus a great deal of money upfront, "La Menace" fully lives up its title.In short, a superbly gripping thriller from first until almost last. Superbly photographed too – and on some hair-raising locations!

Corneau's career is a bit of a puzzle. He started with thrillers and is now making sombre mood pieces like Nocturne indien and Tous les matins du monde that feature career making performances (see Anne Brochet in the latter). La menace starts off as a tight thriller with a harried Yves Montand trying to balance wife and mistress, loses some momentum in the middle as fumble-foot detective Balmer sniffs around the principals, then picks up for a slam-bang finish in the twisting mountain roads of southern British Columbia.Montand and Carole Laure, the Canadian singer-actress, supply the tension after the sudden death of Marie Dubois (who is the best performer in the picture). Although it's not as good as the classic Série noire with Dewaere, this is a watchable film.

With hindsight,Alain Corneau's best works are his second (Police Python 357),the third one (this one) and the fourth effort(série noire).The first two are unpretentious suspense movies which are quite gripping.THe last one is a different matter:much more ambitious in scope ,Corneau ,abetted by the late Patrick Dewaere,peaks and shows his limits the same way.Subsequent works will be overblown sagas (Fort Saganne),boring arty works (tous les matins du monde) and blatant commercial duds (le prince du Pacifique)."La menace" and "POlice Python 357" look like each other.Both feature Montand ,trying to get away with an inextricable situation.In both movies,in order to fool the POlice,he accumulates false pieces of evidence,clues made up from start to finish,you name it...Enough is enough!Sometimes the viewer is fed up .It's more obvious in "la menace" than in "Police Python 357" because the pace is too slow,and the movie suffers from an inexpressive Carole Laure.MINOR SPOILER:It's really too bad that highly superior Marie Dubois should disappear so early in the story(after 25 minutes!)END OF SPOILERMontand was not that much exciting an actor either.Best male part comes from Jean-François Balmer,playing a die-hard Colombo ,but with a clean raincoat.The ending is rather unusual and nicely absurd;But ,should the Canadian long-distance truck drivers see this movie,they might not agree with the picture of them Corneau gives to the world.