Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"L'as des as" or "Ace of Aces" or "Das As der Asse" is a co-production between West German and France that resulted in a 100-minute movie from 1982, so this one has its 35th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Gérard Oury, also a prolific actor himself, but here he was in charge behind the camera. The star in here is Jean-Paul Belmondo, certainly a known name to many. And he plays a (former) boxer who is traveling to Berlin in 1936 in order to help his fighters win a (gold) medal. So yes this is a Nazi-themed movie. Actually the beginning is even a World War I reference. And Hitler is included on several occasions. However, this film should not be taken seriously from a historic perspective. As so many other times with Belmondo, it is all about the comedy. The way Hitler gets made fun of for his WWI military action and for his disapproval of Jesse Owens' successes says it all basically and it is pretty hilarious. The film apparently tries to become a bit more serious when it brings in a Jewish orphan boy that Belmondo's character has to help, so that he will not get caught by the Nazis. So yes, there are some more serious moments in there, but honestly these did not work out well and it's also not half the tear-jerk material they want it to be.I must say I like the film in the first 45 minutes perhaps, but then it got worse and worse. Had it been from start to finish, I'd have given it a 6/10 for sure, but the longer it went, the more absurd it became really Such a shame. It also feels the action moves further and further away from Belmondo. At the very end, at the Nazis headquarter and with the Führer himself very present, it just hits rock-bottom and it just isn't funny anymore, at least not to me. It was a decent watch when they were making a comedy that delivered solid jokes in the face of the historical context and not just shove it all into our faces while losing all subtlety. It seems that the drag approach to humor was pretty present in the 1980s, but it almost never works out and also not in this one here I guess. So all in all, I give this film a thumbs-down. The inclusion of Marie-France Pisier was also disappointing. I guess they wanted to come up with a female love interest under any circumstance, but they complete forgot to elaborate convincingly on her and eventually it is the same as if they had left her out completely. I suggest you watch something else or switch it off halfway into the movie because that's when it all goes south.
