L'Alpagueur
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| L'Alpagueur | |
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| Directed by | Philippe Labro |
| Written by | Philippe Labro |
| Starring | Jean-Paul Belmondo, Bruno Cremer |
| Music by | Michel Colombier |
| Distributed by | Cerito film |
| Release date(s) | March 25, 1976 |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | French |
| IMDb profile | |
L'Alpagueur is a film adaptation of the original scenario from Philippe Labro directed by him and featuring Jean-Paul Belmondo in the title role and Bruno Cremer as L'Epervier.
Released in 1976 and considered as a typical French thriller from the 70's, it is one of many belmondo's movie where he is playing the title role. Like in Le Magnifique, L'Incorrigible or Le Marginal, Belmondo is the real star of the show, playing a solitary character and pursuing bad guys. The score from Michel Colombier is typical from this period, mixing piano, modern rhythms and brass instruments.
[edit] Plot
As one of the character is saying at the beginning of the movie:
L'alpagueur c'est un chasseur de tête, c'est un mercenaire, un marginal. L'alpagueur c'est l'astuce qu'a trouvé un haut fonctionnaire pour passer au-dessus de la routine policière.
The alpagueur is a head hunter, a mercenary, a marginal. The alpagueur it's a trick made up by a state employee to be above the cop's routine.
Originally a deer hunter, l'Alpagueur became a head hunter working for the police, paid by them with money stolen from criminals. The main plot revolve around l'Alpagueur pursuing l'Epervier (goshawk) a bank robber and an assassin, who kills whoever saw him committing a crime. His technic is to pay a young and naive man to be is complice and kill him right after. One of his complice, Costa Valdez, is only wounded during one of his hold up, and with his help, l'Alpagueur manage to find l'epervier at the end.
[edit] Critic
Considered as an average Belmondo movie, it is interesting by his casting. In particular, the presence of Bruno Cremer, as a cold, icy and mysterious assassin, with a gay side that give him a deepness that is not really exploited during the movie. The very good music gives a sense of drama that is usual in French thriller, usually orchestrated by great compositors, like Vladimir Cosma, Ennio Morricone or Michel Colombier. Unfortunately, the movie his kind of plotless. There is to many sub-plots that distract l'Alpagueur from his main objective and the great confrontation between the two great actors (Belmondo and Cremer) is very short at the end. The final scene, shot as a Leone's western gives us a reason to think that this move could have been a lot better than it is.
