Cible émouvante (1993)
Directed by Pierre Salvadori

Film Review

The crime thriller has been a popular target for parody in France ever since the heyday of the genre in the 1950s.  Whilst Cible émouvante is an entertaining film with many plus points, it adds little in the way of originality or style to what has gone before it.  The plot is infuriatingly predictable, the writer appearing to take the obvious course at ever turn, and the film ends up appearing to parody itself.  Fortunately, the film is mercifully short and ends way before it could have become tedious.

The film's main strength lies in the wonderful interactions between the three lead actors.  Jean Rochefort, better known for straight roles as the archetypal hard man of the French film noir (or 'polar') genre, shows an endearing flair for comedy and contributes most to the film's great comic moments. Marie Trintignant is Rochefort's unlikely co-star, less convincing but giving an amusingly feisty performance.  Caught in the middle is young Guillaume Depardieu (son of Gérard), often outrageously funny in his familiar gawping way; female devotees of the actor will certainly not be disappointed.

Film Synopsis

Whilst fulfilling one of his contracts, hitman Victor Meynard is spotted by delivery boy Antoine.  Logically, Victor knows he should kill Antoine as he is a dangerous witness, but he can't bring himself to do it.  Instead, he adopts the boy and trains him to become a professional killer, despite Antoine's obvious lack of enthusiasm for this line of work.  The two men are then hired by Corsican gangster Casa Bianca to kill Renée Dandrieux, a fraudster who has just conned him into buying a counterfeit painting.  For the first time in his career, Victor is unable to go through with the killing.  When Casa Bianca sends two of his best men - Barnabé and Manu - to deal with Renée, Victor and Antoine come to her rescue and the killers are disposed of.  Renée is quick to show her gratitude but Victor wins no praise from his tyrannical mother for this act of kindness.  In fact, when a contract is offered by Casa Bianca to kill Victor, Madame Meynard is more than willing to execute it herself...