- Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly, Cyrielle Clair, Marie-Christine Descouard, Elisabeth Margoni
- Directors: Georges Lautner
- Writers: Georges Lautner, Jacques Audiard, Michel Audiard, Patrick Alexander
- Producers: Alain Belmondo, Alexandre Mnouchkine, Georges Dancigers
- Format: Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
- Language French
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.66:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Image Entertainment
- DVD Release Date: 30 Oct 2001
- Run Time: 108 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005OCKT
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 241,600 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Belmondo at his best and worst,
By
This review is from: Le Professionel [DVD] (DVD)
One of Belmondo's biggest hits and featuring a memorable Ennio Morricone theme (Chi Mai) that also entered the UK top ten as the main title to BBC TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, 1981's Le Professionnel veers between good and bad. Introducing himself as "Joss Beaumont, espionage and brawls," it's not a bad description of the film itself. Sold out - or rather given away - by the French government that sent him before he could kill an African dictator, he escapes from prison and returns to France to finish off the job during a state visit from the corrupt politician, all the time goading the French secret services in an increasingly schizophrenic tale. On the one hand it's the kind of film that will throw in wildly over the top racist commanders, a lesbian threatening his wife with a bar of soap and a gunfight straight out of a Western with Robert Hossein's stone-cold government agent. Yet it's also smart enough to throw in a neat twist as to exactly how he plans to accomplish his hit and aware enough not to turn the dictator into a complete cartoon - having spent years in jail himself, he enjoys having the upper hand in negotiations with the French and even points out that they had three revolutions and five republics before settling on a civilised form of government but expect Africa to get it right in one.
The pluses outweigh the minuses, and most of the various DVD releases are English-friendly - the English DVD has a subtitled French language version in a slightly overcropped widescreen transfer (it should be 1.66:1 but Optimum cropped it to 1.85:1); the Australian PAL DVD and the US NTSC DVD include both subtitled French soundtrack and dubbed English in a decent widescreen transfer, but no extras while the French DVD has unsubtitled extras but only a dubbed English language option. (The German DVD, however, is not English-friendly.)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good entertainment.,
By
This review is from: Le Professionel [DVD] (DVD)
A French "black ops" professional is betrayed by his own superiors while on a mission, ending up in an African tyrants Gulag. After two years hard labour he escapes and returns to Paris to take revenge.
I came to this movie out of curiosity: I'm a fan of Ennio Morricone's music, and this is the movie where the famous "Chi Mai" theme appeared. Reading about the movie I discovered that it was well thought of... so decent movie with famously excellent soundtrack, why not give it a try? I'm glad I did. It's a French movie of course, so English was available as subtitles only, but even so I laughed out loud at several moments. Poor Farge! Seems a decent mid level guy, just doing his job, and he keeps get caught napping by Beaumont (the Belmondo character). Definitely not a chick flick by the way. According to this movie there are only three women in France, all gorgeous, and all want to sleep with our hero. Incidentally, one of those women is his wife - so I guess you could say that the fact that he whispers sweet nothings to his wife AND then also to two other hotties quite clearly marks this movie as French! A Holywood movie would at least have had the wife betray him first, so that she "deserved it" - and then no more than one mistress. Others have noted similarities between this movie and "Bourne Identity": personally I don't really see it. In terms of basic plot elements then yes, perhaps so, but this movie plays very differently, less in the super hero vein. Flaws? Some of the stuntwork is quite bad (looks fake), likewise some of the kissing. These are small flaws in an overall good effort. And lets not forget that lovely Ennio Morricone soundtrack! Deserves to be better known, good fun, recommended!
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jean-Paul Belmondo makes the movie worth seeing; it's part thriller, part comic book, part moralizing,
By C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Le Professionnel ( The Professional ) [DVD] (DVD)
Josselin Beaumont (Jean-Paul Belmondo), agent for the Special Action Service, a shadowy French government agency, is sent to the African country of Malagasi to kill Colonel Njala, its president-for-life. Political considerations suddenly change and the assassination is called off. Instead of recalling Beaumont, his masters decide to betray him to secure a good relationship with the president-for-life. And the president-for-life intends to show his compassion for a beaten man by only giving Joss a life sentence. First, of course, Joss must be turned into a beaten man, through brutality, torture and hard time. After two years, plenty of time to figure out he was betrayed, Joss breaks out and returns to France. And there he informs his former masters that he's going to complete the assignment while Njala is in France on a state visit. Try and stop me, is his message.
A warning: This is one of those movies where the creators think that what is basically a thriller can be turned into "serious contemporary drama" by having a meaningful and ironic ending. That corny and self-important assumption has made so many movies -- American, French and whatever -- seem as dated and unsatisfying as The Parallax View. The movie really starts when Joss gets back to Paris. The high-level bureaucrats are scurrying about, more frightened for their careers if Joss succeeds than they are for Malagasi's president-for-life's life. They know Joss has been trained by the best...he's quick, resourceful, humorous, tough and clever. (After all, he's Jean-Paul Belmondo). So just who is going to stop him, asks the minister at a meeting of senior executives of the Special Action Service? There's a long pause. Men look nervously at each other. Then..."I will," speaks up Commissioner Rosen (Robert Hossein) of the government's Intervention Bureau. Rosen is as tough and smart as Joss, and much more ruthless. Wait a minute. Is this a thriller with some humor or a cartoon with some thrills? It turns out Le Professionel is both, with a bit of how-awful-governments-can-be moralizing thrown in. Part of the time the movie is engrossing with a clever plot; part of the time I couldn't help snickering over how over-played some of the characters were. The dialogue moves between the two. Enrico Morricone's obvious score doesn't help. With Le Professionel, however, the ride with Belmondo in the driver's seat is almost worth it. Belmondo, 48 when the movie was made, is one of those actors who look their increasing years and benefit from them. Even at his youngest he was no pretty boy, not with that long face, underslung jaw, thick lips and deep lines bracketing his mouth. If he is sometimes called (by Americans) the French Bogart, it would be equally true to call Bogart the American Belmondo.
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