1981 · 15 · 1h 48min
Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller | Foreign Language
English Title The Professional
Director Georges Lautner
Music Ennio Morricone
Stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly, Cyrielle Clair
Release Date 21 October 1981 (France)
Country of Origin France
Language(s) Spoken French
Sound Mono | Colour Colour | Aspect Ratio 1.66 : 1
Victim of a plot which has resulted in his imprisonment in a Central African jail for two years, a French secret agent arrives in Paris to settle accounts.
The Professional is a 1981 French action thriller film directed by Georges Lautner. The film stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as the title role. The film is based on award-winning 1976 novel Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal by Patrick Alexander.
The film was a commercial success upon its theatrical release and was the fourth most watched feature film in France in 1981, selling 5,243,559 tickets.
The music was composed by Ennio Morricone and the main theme Chi Mai became an instrumental hit.
Ringard
(mais sympa)
Synopsis
French secret agent Josselin Beaumont is sent to kill Colonel Njala, the dictator of Malagawi, a fictional African country. However, before he manages to accomplish his mission, the political situation changes drastically and the French secret service resorts to handing over Beaumont to the Malagawian authorities. After a long, unfair trial, during which Beaumont is injected with drugs, he is sentenced to long-term penal servitude at a "re-education camp".
Following a daring escape with an African inmate, he returns to France and informs the French secret service of his presence, promising that he will kill Njala, who is in France for an official visit, thus getting his revenge on the people who betrayed him. The secret service responds by setting other agents on Beaumont's trail. However, he manages to remain one step ahead, humiliating and killing some of his major betrayers, including Rosen, the sadistic chief of the secret police. After Rosen falls in a gunfight, Beaumont takes Rosen's identity card and puts his dog tags on his body, spreading confusion within the secret service and temporarily reducing Njala's guard. Beaumont eventually tricks a secret service agent into shooting the dictator. While government officials confer with higher authorities, he slowly walks towards Njala's helicopter, but is shot dead by government agents, who have received the order to do so.
"A climax, which in terms of suspense alone, is rarely seen in the cinema, and a parting aerial shot giving way to pure emotion. Grandiose"
zoom-cinema.fr