Le paltoquet (1986) Online

Consider the cast: Richard Bohringer, Daniel Auteuil, Phillipe Leotard, Jean Yanne, Michel Piccoli, Fanny Ardant, Jeanne Moreau - seven of the heaviest hitters in French cinema - throw in a bargain priced DVD and who WOULDN'T buy it? This dream cast ensures that it IS worth watching but there are those who may struggle to cope with the surreal aspects which have some of the hallmarks of Death In A French Garden, the work of the same director. Here we have an ongoing bridge game in which the participants have titles rather than names - The Doctor, The Journalist, The Honorable Trader - in a slightly unrealistic setting that resembles a darker version of the one in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, a vast space not unlike the Gare d'Orsay that Orson Welles utilised for The Trial. In the background is Jeanne Moreau, who bears yet another title, The Brothel Keeper; at her right-hand The Paltoquet (nonentity) Michel Piccoli and spending a great deal of time in an incongruous hammock is Fanny Ardant. The bridge game is interrupted by the Flic (Jean Yanne) who commandeers the Doctor to determine the cause of death of a body that has just been discovered. Soon the Doctor is accused (by Yanne) of the crime and in the fullness of time the other players are also accused. In terms of storyline that's about it. None of the principals is in need of acting lessons and it's never less than interesting but more than that ...

Le Paltoquet, a typical whodunit, is an interesting lesson in nihilism. First of all, the characters have no names. They are referred to as 'the journalist' or 'the doctor'. Secondly, there is no real set. Sure, there is a hall, there are chairs, tables and a bar, but that's all. There is nothing to hide the fact that it is not a real bar but a studio. This brings Le Paltoquet as close as possible to a filmed stage version.

It reminds me of Dogville, but I enjoyed it a lot more. These actors have to compensate for the emptiness of the sets with their charm. The best part is that all kinds of famous French actors, Daniel Auteuil, Michel Piccoli, Jean Yann, Jeanne Moreau and Fanny Ardant were likely enjoying this experiment. The famous actors in Dogville probably did that as well, but somehow that movie lacked cheerful anarchism and gave me the feeling that most of the actors probably played in that film to boost their resumes.

I treasure the bizarre moments when Piccoli presses a button and puts everything on hold. Just as the bartender provides the thrilling music himself by turning on a pick-up and pointing towards the door where the commissioner comes bursting through. The film does indeed have some shortcomings, the dialogue is not that sparkling, and the characters remain flat, but simply getting a experimental film made like this was a great feat.

After watching Michel Deville's "Death In A French Garden" and liking it quite a bit, I had high hopes for "Le Paltoquet", a film which he wrote and directed just one year later, with an even more distinguished cast of past and future French film stars. To say that I was let down would be an understatement; this film is pretty damn awful! "Death In A French Garden" was playful in a good way; this one is also playful (at one point Piccoli's character "freezes" the action - why? how?), but also frightfully pretentious. It's heavily stylized (95% of the action takes place inside an underlit "bar" that is obviously meant to be a theatrical stage with a limited amount of props, the characters have "symbolic" names - Professor, Doctor, Inspector, etc.) and loaded with puns and wordplay that will mean very little to any viewer who does not understand French. But even those puns that do get across ("I'm embarrassing you....I'm embracing you") are not particularly funny. Oh yes, there is a murder mystery in there somewhere, but the film treats it all as a big joke - the solution and motivation behind it are beyond pointless. Some people say that an ambitious failure is preferable to a safe success, but watching "Le Paltoquet" makes it easy to argue otherwise! * out of 4.