Folle à tuer (1975) User Reviews

An engaging French thriller

[udar55 · 7/10 · 13 January 2008]

Following his dead brother's wishes, Stéphane Mostri (MOONRAKER's Michael Lonsdale) hires Julie (Marlène Jobert) from a mental institution to look after his recently orphaned nephew Thomas. Things move rather quickly as, on her second day on the job, Julie, Thomas and chauffeur George are kidnapped by ruthless hit-man Thompson (Tomas Milian). Thompson pretends he wants to extort Mostri, but his real plan is to kill his target Thomas and pin it on the mentally fragile Julie.

This French thriller from Yves Boisset was a nice surprise. While the mystery is rather obvious about an hour in, it is worth seeing for Milian's killer (pun most definitely intended) performance as Thompson. This is the antithesis of his over-the-top (but equally great) turn as Giulio in the previous year's ALMOST HUMAN. Milian is a cool, calm killer with zero emotion. Jobert, who played a similar character in RIDER ON THE RAIN (1969), does well as the young woman trying to grasp what remains of her sanity through this ordeal. The copy I watched bore the generic title EVIL TRAP.

The Smile of the Cat remains

[Thorsten_B · 7/10 · 7 May 2006]

Who wouldn't tell from the first minute of the film that Michael Lonsdale is the bad guy after all? Nonetheless, this one's quite entertaining. If you like these small, lesser known French crime stories from the 70s, filled up with obscurities, it is definitely your cup of tea. Marlene Jobert is great, so is little Thomas Waintrop, and if you don't mind that the plot has some unbelievable elements in it, you will enjoy the experience. The music, by the way, is entirely taken from Verdis opera "La Forza del Destino" (adapted here by French film music maestro Philippe Sarde), and that title should give you a hint for the on goings. Not least to be watched for it's reference to "Alice in Wonderland"!

Mad enough to be forgotten

[prohibited-name-1142 · 11 October 2003]

It's not the first time I'm complaining about the general lack of interest that Yves Boisset suffers from, and certainly not the last.

Boisset directed this amazing thriller with his usual style, every piece of the puzzle being right in its place, an infernal rythm sticking it all together.

It's the story of Julie (Marlène Jobert), an ex nutcase that's reinserted in society as a guardian angel for the young Thomas, a spoiled brat who appears to be a very rich orphan. As always in Boisset movies, trouble isn't very far ahead and takes the form of a cold blooded Tòmas Milian who kidnaps the child and Julie and asks for a ransom.

No one is innocent here, except for little Thomas, and nothing is what it seems. The major force of the movie being its casting, the co-production allowing Boisset to use Italian as well as French actors. Jobert is right on spot, Milian refrains from using his usual wide palette of grins (and is given an awful accent in the french dubbed version), and Michael Lonsdale is a decent enough corrupted bourgeois ! Victor Lanoux plays the menacing and simple ex convict, belly pot and sleazy eyes included.

With an engaging musical score, a simple and effective storyline, and enough plot twists to keep anybody awake, FOLLE À TUER should be released on DVD along with Boisset's finest, in a perfect world.

I've never been disappointed by this amazing director, and I will keep on digging in the slowly fading VHS crates to find more of his masterpieces, that's for sure.

Carroll 's cat's smile.

[dbdumonteil · 24 March 2007]

An unusual film in Boisset's career:the director leaves the world of the activist cinema for that,more lucrative ,of the thriller.Actually "folle à Tuer" recalls René Clément's late period which was not his best,by a long shot.Marlene Jobert was the star -along with Charles Bronson- of Clement's "Le Passager de la Pluie". Her character (Julie) in "Folle à Tuer" strongly recalls Mellie in "Le Passager..." Both are rather fragile,even slightly mentally disturbed ,and both are involved in a far-fetched story.Both movies hint at Lewis Carroll's Alice.Here it involves the kidnapping of a child (Julie is his governess)but the plot remains very banal in the end.Only Michel Lonsdale's strange sinister-looking face has got something Carrollesque here.

Taut non political Boisset's movie

[searchanddestroy-1 · 22 March 2024]

As with CRAN D'ARRET and one or two other movies which are not political oriented, Yves Boisset gives us here a very taut, efficient, sharp as a knife thriller, where Thomas Milian and Marlène Jobert both rob the whole film. An unusual story, not that predictable but riveting, where the audience always wonders where the story leads to. And in the good way; because in most cases, when you don't know where the plots drives at, that becomes rapidly confusing, boring, unbearable. Here, not at all. I repeat, this is not a political film - the Yves Boisset's trademark - but cynism from powerful magnates is not far from the spirit of this thriller. Excellent directing, acting, dialogues for this adaptation from a Jean Patrick Manchette's novel. Manchette - Boisset, how could it be lousy? NO WAY. But do not confound this scheme with another adult child relationship film called LE JOUET, starring Pierre Richard. The latest is a comedy and this one, not at all. I like the short sequence here Thomas Milian, the cold blooded killer, gives a blanket to the kid, during the night, so that he doesn't catch a cold. That reminds me Richard Boone, the villain in Budd Boetticher's TALL T, where he also gives a blanket to Maureen O'Sullivan, for the same reason. Very interesting detail, isn't it?