Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kirpianuscus First, it is not the policier who you expect. against the same lines, Jean Gabin in a well known role and the last scenes. it is different for a simple reason - because the sentimental side is well developed, because the presence ( and music) of Serge Gainsbourg and for Dany Carrel performance. and for the flavor of a story political incorrect but solide and coherent and seductive. a film about the justice, friendship and choices. useful for old memories. and for the trip in the frame of a period, with its sensitivities, taste and options. a world. like an refuge.

vostf Except from the opening prologue at the graveyard, Le Pacha starts as a fine crime movie. The robbery is great, and another high point is the scene where Nathalie (Dany Carrel) meets Quinquin (André Pousse) at the 'JNS 3' shop. Then the movie stops being interesting, the whole plot is just let go to reach the agreed upon conclusion. Either they felt too tired after writing the first part or they had to compromise henceforth.Gabin benefits from Audiard's dialog, but he is definitely not the main asset hereI agree with a previous reviewer that Gabin does bog down the global rhythm, he just hams it as he did most of the time in the later decade of his career, playing the tough intractable patriarch. This really makes a boring character that prevents the script from being more clever. Gabin actually demanded that the script be tailored to suit his own image of The Patriarch of French Cinema, and it painfully shows here in contrast with such an interesting, if very violent, first half. Just remember that Gabin had declined to play the lead in Les Tontons Flingueurs, otherwise we would not have had that masterpiece of French comedy.SPOILERS thereafter: the 65min markIMO Le Pacha goes down the drain when Nathalie goes to meet Quinquin at his house. OK she wanted a personal revenge, but she was an interesting character who was cheaply gotten rid of for the sake of a script that is then just dull till the end. Now I understand Gabin would have been reluctant to share more screen time with her, but I really feel the key to a better final act lies with a more clever part for Dany Carrel. It's all too obvious since the movie is just 80min long and we've got this rushed, linear, uninteresting telegraphed ending after the 65min mark. The movie could have been 10min longer and way better... were it not for Mr Gabin almighty star power.

MARIO GAUCI This was another Jean Gabin vehicle which often turned up on Italian TV; having decided to check it out, I'm glad I did because it's a pretty good policier! Despite his advancing age, the star is wholly believable as the dogged Police Commissioner (the "Pacha" of the title) - out to avenge his childhood, albeit shady, friend - who's also something of an amiable curmudgeon. The film features an elaborate daylight robbery sequence - after which one member of the gang eliminates all his associates in order to keep the loot for himself (one of them is pushed inside his car onto thin ice which naturally breaks and engulfs him)! - and is fast-paced, and short, enough to never overstay its welcome. Besides, it's given a tremendous boost by a modern percussion-heavy score by celebrated performer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (who even appears as himself during a recording session of the tune heard over the opening credits!).There's also a hilarious scene in which the old-fashioned Gabin visits a hippie club - in search of a girl (Dany Carrel of MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN [1960]) who, apart from being a fling of Gabin's deceased colleague, is a link to the robbery mentioned above since she's the sister of one of the culprits (now also dead). Therefore, she and Gabin conspire to trap the man responsible for both deeds and the film ends with an indiscriminate shoot-out - punctuated by an ominous organ drone - in an abandoned warehouse (which curiously anticipates the climax of THE FRENCH CONNECTION [1971]!).

Laurent Mousson Well, it may possibly not have aged that well, notably the story line, that's pretty linear, but this film nevertheless has a few decent assets.First, the cast, granted you get Gabin playing lead, or rather freewheeling lead, but look at the rest of the cast : an impressive array of distinctive supporting actors, many of which can be spotted in many other films of the day, who do a spendid job in here, even when silent. For example, André Pousse has the perfect face for the ruthless gangster job he does in the movie.Second asset is the mood, a sort of sticky, foggy, terribly square version of the late sixties. The final scene in a rundown factory is truly awesome. This atmosphere is enhanced by Serge Gainsbourg's splendidly sober score (Gainsbourg himself appears in one scene, singing the striking "Requiem pour un con"), based on mesmerising percussion loops (way ahead of its time) or very gentle hammond organ parts. Oh and one song by Brigitte Bardot ("Harley Davidson") is also featured as background to one scene.Third, which can only be fully appreciated with a good command of French, is the script and dialogue, where Michel Audiard delivers some of his hilarious trademark one-liners, such as "le jour où on mettra les cons sur orbite, ben t'as pas fini de tourner" ["the day they'll put gits on orbit, you'll be far from stopping to revolve"], which rely on slang and adequate delivery to give an unmistakable texture to the lines.The only real downers here are the embarrassingly "hip" nightclub scenes, complete with sitar-laden raga-rock, that are pretty unwatchable to today's standards.Last point : it's pretty violent for its time, but in an almost choreographed way, which could in a way evoke "Spaghetti" Westerns or Sam Peckinpah's work...An enjoyable slice of 1960s french cinema, simply does the job.