Blast from the Past: Belmondo
Jean Becker directed Backfire (French: Échappement Libre), a crime road movie, which stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, reuniting for the first time since Breathless (1960).
Grade: B
| Backfire | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
Theatrical release poster
|
|
A criminal organization offers Parisian David (Belmondo) $10,000 to transport a car across Europe, and he is accompanied by a photographer, Olga (Seberg).
They tell him little about it except that drugs are not involved. However, sure enough, David discovers that he is smuggling gold.
The road movie takes the couple to Beirut and then Damascus, during which they predictably fall in love and just as predictably David wants the gold for himself.
The film was made by the same team that had produced Banana Peel (1963).
Jean Louis Trintignant was originally cast in the lead, but he withdrew and was replaced by Belmondo.
The film was moderately popular at the French box office.
Cast
Jean-Paul Belmondo as David Ladislas
Jean Seberg as Olga Celan
Enrico Maria Salerno as Mario
Gert Fröbe as Fehrman
Renate Ewert as Comtesse
Jean-Pierre Marielle as Van Houde
Diana Lorys as Rosetta
Fernando Rey as the Lebanese policeman
Wolfgang Preiss as Grenner
Michel Beaune as Daniel
Roberto Camardiel as Stephanidès
Fernando Sancho as Ylmaz
Giacomo Furia as Nino
Credits:
Directed by Jean Becker
Screenplay by Becker, Maurice Fabre, Didier Goulard, Luis Marquina, Claude Sautet; Dialogue by Daniel Boulanger, based on the novel by Clet Coroner
Produced by Paul-Edmond Decharme
Cinematography Edmond Séchan (black and white)
Edited by Monique Kirsanoff
Music by Grégorio García Ségura, Martial Solal
Production: Capotole Movies, South Pacific Films
Distributed by C.C.F.C.
Release date: September 4, 1964 (France)
Running time: 97 mins
Box office: 2,007,088 admissions (France)
