So Long, Stooge | |
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So Long, Stooge film poster
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Directed by | Claude Berri |
Produced by | Pierre Grunstein |
Written by |
Alain Page (novel) Claude Berri |
Starring |
Coluche Philippe Léotard Agnès Soral |
Cinematography | Bruno Nuytten |
Edited by | Hervé de Luze |
Distributed by | AMLF |
Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
Language | French |
Box office | €32.5 million |
So Long, Stooge (French title: Tchao Pantin) is a 1983 film directed by Claude Berri. It is based on a novel by Alain Page.
Coluche, the main actor, won the "Best Actor" award in 1984 César Award. The film was selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 57th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Lambert, a withdrawn middle-aged man, works the night shift at a Parisian petrol station. He has no friends, no family; his only companion is his bottle of rum. One night, a young Arab man, Bensoussan, enters his shop — and his life. This stranger has also no family, lives alone in a dingy room, and scrapes together a living as a drug dealer. The two solitary men develop a friendship — but this is brutally brought to an end when Bensoussan is killed in front of Lambert. Lambert soon realises that his new friend was murdered by his drug dealing associates and sets out to avenge his death — assisted by Lola, a punk girl who knew Bensoussan briefly. By doing this, Lambert manages to come to terms with his own tragic past.