Tchao Pantin (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Nov 20, 2024
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Claude BerriRelease Date(s)
1983 (July 30, 2024)Studio(s)
Renn Productions/AMLF (Radiance Films)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A-
Review
Similar in tone to Neil Jordan’s terrific Mona Lisa (1986), Tchao Pantin (1983) is even better, a superb French neo-noir beloved in France yet virtually unknown in English-speaking countries. That may partly be due to the ludicrously inapt English title given the film back in 1983—So Long, Stooge (What is this, a Joe Besser biopic?). Tchao Pantin isn’t terribly illustrative, either, for non-French speakers, though so popular was the film its title became a catchphrase for many years after. Maybe if it been called something like “A Farewell to the Losers” in English it might have found the larger audience it deserves.
In any case, French comedian Coluche stars as middle-aged, alcoholic Lambert, who works the overnight shift at a Total petrol station in a rough Parisian neighborhood. With no friends, no family, he lives completely detached from the rest of the world, drinking himself to death and frying the occasional egg in his little office, when late one rainy night a young Arab, Bensoussan (Richard Anconina), coasts in on a scooter in need of a new spark plug. He turns out to be a low-level drug pusher and petty thief—Lambert notices he seems to be riding a different scooter or motorcycle each time he appears—but, somehow, these two very different but similarly self-destructive men bond a little. Lambert seems nonjudgmental about Bensoussan’s criminal pursuits, or maybe he genuinely doesn’t care one way or another. Conversely, Bensoussan has little luck trying to get Lambert to open up, though he’s clearly a lonely, generous soul. Eventually, the pair discuss Bensoussan’s plans to date Lola (Agnès Soral), a punk rocker, impressed by the motorcycle Bensoussan has “borrowed” from his gangster-boss.
What follows I can’t share as part of this review—the picture twists and turns in ways that, while not entirely unexpected, are still somehow jarring, slow-burning its way toward a violent, inevitable, and very noir-like resolution. It’s hard to believe director Claude Berri followed this with the stately period films Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (1986), his best-known works outside France.
Coluche, the stage name of Michel Gérard Colucci, was a streetwise, alcoholic, anti-establishment comedian so popular that in 1980 he half-jokingly became a serious contender during the French presidential election, a campaign supported by Charlie Hebdo, among others, Coluche eventually dropping out under pressure from a political establishment worried he might actually win. Virtually all his movies (since 1970) were broad comedies; Tchao Pantin was a rare (and semi-autobiographical) dramatic role, but so acclaimed it won him a César as Best Actor. Tragically, he was dead a year later at 41 when his motorcycle slammed into a truck.
In the film, Coluche projects a kind of Gallic, rockabilly Jackie Gleason, with his similarly big, expressive and sad eyes, pencil mustache, and similar physique. Like Gleason, Coluche was a comedian with impressive dramatic acting chops. His low-key, inscrutable and ambivalent approach to his character fascinates, the screenplay by director Berri, based on Alain Page’s novel, setting up a lot of intrigue early and clearly suggesting something in Lambert’s past brought him to this suicidal, uncaring dead end in his life. The details of Lambert’s past life that gradually emerge are perhaps entirely predictable yet don’t disappoint, instead only making the character even more interesting and memorable.
Tchao Pantin may be 40+ years old, but the film seems almost brand-new. The film has a kind of timeless quality, and the honestly universality (despite outward appearances) of its characters, the graphicness of its violence is immediate. Even the punk rock aspects seem way less dated and more authentic than most such depictions in films and on TV. The unusual musical score by Charlélie Couture is evocative while Bruno Nuytten’s cinematography is the best of French color noir this side of Jean-Pierre Melville.
Radiance Films’ Blu-ray sources a gorgeous 1.66:1 widescreen 4K restoration by Pathé and approved by Nuytten, drawn from the original camera negative; it’s impressively sharp with superb color, and generally looks great throughout. The uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mono, in French only, is also very good, as are the English subtitles on this Region “A” and ”B” encoded disc.
Supplements consist of an introduction to the film (better viewed after) by French cinema scholar Dr. Michael Abecassis; Once Upon a Time…Tchao Pantin is a 52-minute retrospective French television documentary about the film; and a trailer, also in high-def, is included. A 24-page, full-color booklet includes an enlightening essay about Coluche and his troubled life and career by Manuela Lazić.
One of the year’s best Blu-ray releases, Tchao Pantin is enthusiastically recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV