Entertaining thriller with an air of comedy

Author: psagray from Spain
22 February 2012

Entertaining thriller with an air of comedy, "échappement free" is the second film by Jean Becker, son of Jacques Becker teacher and author of some recent high-quality films, like "Les enfants du marais" or "Dialogue avec mon Gardener" The argument is quite topical and conventional, focusing on David Ladislas (Belmondo), a smuggler responsible for a complex criminal organization of illegally transporting a large amount of gold from Barcelona to Beirut, with the help of Olga Celan (Seberg). Once there, Ladislas attempt to appropriate the gold, being pursued by the organization as referred to in a long journey that will take you to Athens, Patras, Naples, Rome and Bremen.

The film has a great cast, headed by Belmondo and Seberg, stars again after the celebrated duo who play in "À bout de souffle" and whose work is accompanied by great side as Gert Fröbe ("It geschah am hellichten Tag "" Goldfinger ") and Fernando Rey. Properly shot, without fanfare or flaws, the film manages to entertain the viewer, which runs through much of Europe at the hands of the protagonists, many sequences are located in real world scenarios (Athens, Naples, Rome, Bremen) and others, such as that take place in the Syrian desert, were filmed in Almeria.

Perhaps the weakest aspect is the script, rather irregular and unnatural dialogues with some, if not unnecessary, but generally can not be said to be bad, but rather conventional, lacking nerve.Therefore, "free échappement" is a film without much pretension to be a good entertainment, pleasing the audience for its cosmopolitanism and good performances.