Coup De Torchon

Stylish, twisted black comedy moves setting from the American South of Jim Thompson's pulp novel to a French colonial town in 1938 Africa. There, Noiret is the police chief, a likable, bleary-eyed slob treated like dirt by most everyone he meets. Policing the town with anything but an iron fist, he prefers to turn a blind eye to vice and corruption. Then, having one day decided he's taken enough abuse, Lucien starts killing anyone who crosses him.

COUP DE TORCHON combines black humor at its blackest, with as dead-on an evocation of a torpid, seedy backwater as anyone has achieved on screen. Noiret is an excellent choice in the role, providing a perfect balance b...