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Coup De Torchon (Clean Slate) (DVD)
Year:
Rating: MA
Distributor: Universal
The Film: 4.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5
The great Bertrand Tavernier (Around Midnight, It All Starts Today) is a solid craftsman who always makes highly watchable films. This one is no exception. Tucked away in mid-career, Coup De Torchon is a sparkling, vicious little satire on French Colonialism - a kind of White Mischief on acid.
Lucien (the perfectly cast and ever-lugubrious Philippe Noiret) is a colonial policeman. He has nothing but contempt for the "niggers", as he calls them, and seems to harbour similar feelings for his white compatriots, although he finds that easy to hide as they are so drunken and self obsessed that they don't see his malice. Lucien also finds it easy to seduce women - such as fiery redhead Rose (the scene stealing Isabelle Huppert) - who have gone so troppo that they happily leap under the mosquito net and into his double bed. Not that this gives Lucien much pleasure - he's far too jaded for that. When the crazed colonialists end up in a tangle of murder, Lucien merely enjoys the show. As he tells Rose, "part of my job has become the enjoyment of other peoples' misery." Tavernier has assembled a top notch cast here (Stephane Audran also graces the screen), and he finds the perfect balance between realistic characters and broad, knowing social satire.