Les Fugitifs
| Les Fugitifs | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Francis Veber |
| Written by | Francis Veber |
| Starring |
Gérard Depardieu Pierre Richard |
| Music by | Vladimir Cosma |
| Cinematography | Luciano Tovoli |
| Distributed by | Gaumont |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
86 min. |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Les Fugitifs is a French 1986 comedy film, directed by Francis Veber. It was remade in 1989 as Three Fugitives, also directed by Veber.
After five years, Jean Lucas (Depardieu), is released from prison. He intends to end his criminal lifestyle, but on his release day, when he goes to the bank to open an account, he is taken hostage by François Pignon (Richard), who robs the bank and accidentally shoots Jean in the leg. However, Police commissioner Duroc (Maurice Barrier) doesn't believe Jean is a hostage, given his history of 14 bank robberies. Jean forces François to go to the police and confess to being the robber so that Jean's name would be cleared, but once they arrive at the police station, the police mistake Jean as the robber, forcing him to escape. François follows, and ends up taking him to Dr. Martin (Jean Carmet), a senile veterinarian friend of his late father, to treat his bullet wound.
François was a former chief of sales at a textile factory, which went out of business three years ago, leaving him unemployed, and his daughter Jeanne (Anaïs Bret) has been catatonic since the death of François' wife around the same time François lost his job. Not wanting to leave his daughter, he asks for Jean's help to get him a new identity so that he can escape the country. Reluctantly, Jean contacts his old friend Labib (Jean Benguigui), asking him to hook François up with a fake ID. However, upon the meeting, Labib informs François that his price for a new passport has now changed from 2,500 Francs to 500,000. However, François only made away with 84,000 Francs from the robbery. Upon learning of the truth, Labib calls Jean, threatening to take François to the police if Jean doesn't get him 500,000 Francs in 24 hours.
Jean steals a van and crashes into Labib's bar, rescuing François. François then writes a written confession for Jean to present to the police. Jean suggests François to turn himself in, for he could get away with just one year in prison. However, just as he prepares to leave, Jeanne, who has come to care for Jean, asks him to stay, breaking out of her catatony. When Jean refuses, Jeanne runs off. When François and Jean chase her, they see her run into a park, where a stranger offers her a candy and then takes her to the police after Jeanne tells him about her mother being dead and her father being in jail. Witnessing the police take away his daughter, François intends to kidnap her and leave the country, despite Jean suggesting him to turn himself in and face the one year jail time, promising that he'll visit Jeanne in the meantime.
Jean meets up with Duroc and presents him the written confession, and is vindicated. He takes a job as a locksmith, and goes to visit Jeanne in the orphanage, where she has relapsed into catatony, now even refusing to eat and speaking to him, and is being guarded by the police. Later that night, as François attempts to break the lock to break Jeanne out of the orphanage, when Jean shows up and picks the lock successfully. However, at first, Jean takes the wrong girl from the bed, and when she screams, it wakes up the police officer, who, however, trips on toys and drops her revolver, which François picks up and threatens her into directing him to Jeanne. Jean and François escape from the orphanage with Jeanne, who has gone sick from lack of food. However, Jean gets a new client in the middle of the night - an intoxicated doctor, who, after a night of partying, had lost his keys. After the doctor examines her, he discovers a very low blood pressure on her, and gives her a pill of tonicardiaque, and advises the men to feed her normally.
...
Wikipedia