Mortelle randonnée (1983)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Claude Miller

Writers:

Michel Audiard (adaptation) &
Jacques Audiard (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

9 March 1983 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Beauvoir, lonely, aging private detective, is put on the bloody track of beautiful Catherine Leiris...

Plot Keywords:

Private Detective | Hotel | Femme Fatale | On The Road | Narration

Awards:

6 nominations

Cast

Michel Serrault	...	Beauvoir, The 'Eye'
Isabelle Adjani	...	Catherine Leiris / Lucie Brentano - 'Marie'
Guy Marchand	...	L'homme pâle / The pale man
Stéphane Audran	...	The grey lady
Macha Méril	...	Madeleine
Geneviève Page	...	Mme Schmidt-Boulanger
Sami Frey	...	Ralph Forbes
Dominique Frot	...	Betty
Patrick Bouchitey	...	Michel de Meyerganz
Isabelle Ho	...	Cora Palenbrg
François Bernheim	...	Jerry
Gilberte Lauvray	...	La curiste
Michel Such	...	L'homme à l'attaché case / The fat man
Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Voragine
Paul Anrieu

Also Known As:

Deadly Circuit (USA)
Deadly Run (Europe: English title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Certification:

Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Company:

Téléma

Movie Connections:

Features Der letzte Mann (1924)

Soundtrack:

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

Wildly over-rated, immensely disappointing

There's a great film struggling to get out of 'Mortelle Randonnée' (aka 'Deadly Run'). Unfortunately, it's Emil Jannings' 'The Last Laugh,' the plot of which the anti-heroine steals as an imaginary childhood for one of her false identities when she catches a glimpse of it on TV (the film is silent and the lover she tells the story to is blind). The scene underlines the movie's big problem - some clever ideas that just don't pay off.

The rave review on the DVD cover from Time Out's Geoff Andrew - never one to let the facts get in the way of a good quote - should have been the giveaway: 'Mortelle Randonnée' isn't half as good as it thinks it is. Sadly, it isn't even much of an improvement over many a straight-to-tape cable filler. It certainly has more than its fair share of moments that insult the viewer's intelligence and credulity. The premise is good: Michel Serrault's emotionally damaged private investigator covers up the serial murders of an even more damaged young woman he convinces himself is his long-dead daughter. Unfortunately, the tone and execution are not. As the broad score makes abundantly clear, this is an often clumsy black comedy that only thinks it is subtle. Serrault has his moments but seems hell-bent on undermining his performance with inappropriate and self-indulgent moments of playing to the gallery while an uninspired Adjani is just a vacuum: she may be meant to have no true identity, but surely she's not meant to be so overwhelmingly bland? Both have been much better before and since.

Things do improve in the last third with some intriguing moments that, once again, never really pay off - a shame because the final scene is genuinely impressive and could have been so much more had there been some emotional connection with the characters. But sadly, the much-criticised remake, 'Eye of the Beholder,' is actually a much better bet despite a miscast Ewan McGregor (too young for the central conceit to work but good nonetheless), and if you're intrigued by the premise is the one to go for.

If only this really WAS as good as it thinks it is...