Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Product Description
Into the life of Victor, a middle-ages professional killer, comes Antoine, a young messenger who inadvertently becomes involved during a hit. Victor has no son of his own to pass the family business onto and so takes the naive youngster under his wing as his apprentice. The next assignment is the glamorous Renee, an art forger who has conned a gangster, but Victor has softened and can't go through with it. The unlikely trio team up and await the inevitable showdown with an unhappy client. Pierre Salvadori's wickedly funny crime caper features superb central performances with the deadpan Jean Rochefort in one of his greatest roles. One of the standout French comedies of the nineties and now the subject of a British remake.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Into the solitary life of middle-aged hitman, Victor Meynard, come two people: Antoine, a youth who becomes Victor's apprentice, and Renée, a bold thief Victor's been hired to kill because she cheated a mobster. When circumstances prevent Victor from killing her, the gangster sends two more teams to do it (and to dispatch Victor and Antoine). Victor decides to help Renée, and the unlikely trio ends up at his house with his temperamental mother; there, as they hide out, Victor's attraction to Renée grows, she discovers his vocation and fears he's going to kill her, and an ultimate showdown with their hunters is inevitable. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Ceasar Awards, ...Wild Target ( Cible émouvante )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Professional assassin Victor Maynard (a wonderfully understated performance by Jean Rochefort) leads a socially awkward life of order; he has no lover or pet to interfere with the way he likes things: manicured, sterile, colourless, emotionless. The ingredients for his dinner, the cheese he buys ("Today is Wednesday - I get St Nectaire on Wednesday") and his suit of clothes are organised according to the day of the week. He plucks his moustache and covers his furniture with plastic. He is mannered, discreet and boring. The film begins when Victor kills a target then gives the victim's pet bird to his elderly mother who lives in a retirement home. Victor may be a killer, but he believes in perfect order: mannered and meticulous in his speech and appearance, even as he matter-of-factly discusses his latest hit with his mother, who nags him about remaining married at 55 without a son to pass on the family legacy. He takes pride in his work and is well paid. But all of a sudden, something is different - he spared the parrot because it squawked "Je t'aime" when he aimed a gun at it - then, rather than kill Antoine (Depardieu), a young messenger who witnesses his next murder, Victor takes him on as a protoge'. Even though it soon becomes apparent that his apprentice does not have the "killer instinct", Victor grows fond of Antoine and treats him like a son.
Victor is then sent to dispose of Renee (Trintignant), a pretty thief and con woman who switches a fake painting for the real thing and in the process swindles the buyer. Together, Victor and Antoine follow Renee as she walks briskly through the market, stealing and pickpocketing along the way. After dodging Victor's bullet she manages to elude her pursuers, who eventually catch up with her when she checks into a small hotel for the night. Victor is mesmerised by the woman and starts losing his grip; he has a clear shot with his sniper's rifle from a rooftop opposite her hotel room but hesitates. In the morning, Victor and Antoine chase Renee into an enclosed parking lot. Victor raises his pistol but hesitates again, only this time, the vengeful art buyer has sent one of his goons to finish the job. Victor shoots his rival assassin instead, and the real chase begins.
Through his young charges, Victor finds a very different kind of adventure, and has a hard time reconciling his old, lonely, ordered life with the new. But he can never escape his past; it's inherited through blood.
"Wild Target" hits the mark again and again in understated, almost romantic black comedy. The acting is all good but Rochefort is very much the star.
Victor is then sent to dispose of Renee (Trintignant), a pretty thief and con woman who switches a fake painting for the real thing and in the process swindles the buyer. Together, Victor and Antoine follow Renee as she walks briskly through the market, stealing and pickpocketing along the way. After dodging Victor's bullet she manages to elude her pursuers, who eventually catch up with her when she checks into a small hotel for the night. Victor is mesmerised by the woman and starts losing his grip; he has a clear shot with his sniper's rifle from a rooftop opposite her hotel room but hesitates. In the morning, Victor and Antoine chase Renee into an enclosed parking lot. Victor raises his pistol but hesitates again, only this time, the vengeful art buyer has sent one of his goons to finish the job. Victor shoots his rival assassin instead, and the real chase begins.
Through his young charges, Victor finds a very different kind of adventure, and has a hard time reconciling his old, lonely, ordered life with the new. But he can never escape his past; it's inherited through blood.
"Wild Target" hits the mark again and again in understated, almost romantic black comedy. The acting is all good but Rochefort is very much the star.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Recently remade as a British comedy with the somewhat unlikely lineup of Bill Nighy, Rupert Grint and Emily Blunt replacing Jean Rochefort, Guillaume Depardieu and Marie Trintignant, 1992's Wild Target is a wonderfully dry and understated black comedy of murders that at once feels like great raw material for an English-language version and something that few directors could successfully catch the tone of. The jokes are there to be discovered, never bringing attention to themselves or hitting you over the head with obvious staging, which makes it all the funnier. Jean Rochefort is the top hitman in the business who suddenly finds himself going through a late-life crisis after not only sparing witness Guillaume Depardieu's life but taking him on as his apprentice - no health benefits but free bed and board and a three-zone Paris travelcard - and suddenly finding himself jinxed. Worse than that, he ends up protecting Marie Trintignant's conwoman who he's been hired to kill: well, he's a killer, she's a thief, so in principle at least they're perfect for each other. Soon all three are playing surrogate mismatched families in hiding from his disappointed employer - he's not a gangster but he did work in real estate for ten years and will stop at nothing - who sets the second best hitman in the business after him ("In our business, we are the two most expensive." "No, he's a bit more expensive than you."). This somewhat crestfallen rival ("Ah, you're the one who gets the jobs I'm not interested in") is a mirror image of Rochefort: not only does he have a none-too-bright apprentice of his own but his character name is even an anagram of Rochefort's.
Pierre Salvadori shows a deft touch, throwing in sly spins on genre staples like the mechanics of paying hitmen half in advance and incorporating jokes into the equally sly production design - Rochefort's family home is filled with portraits of famous deaths, assassinations and handguns while even the childhood mobile above his bed is made up of miniature murder weapons. Then there's his homicidal mamman, who keeps a scrapbook of his greatest hits and knocks off the staff at her old folks home... It doesn't quite know how to end, running into a bit of turbulence in the finale before coming in for a smooth landing, but it's still one of Rochefort's finest hour-and-a-halfs, and his two ill-fated co-stars manage to more than hold their own as well (Trintignant died as a result of a head wound sustained in a fight with her boyfriend and Depardieu died of pneumonia after having his leg amputated). You may have to pay attention to get the most out of it, but it rewards the effort with a surprisingly delightful film.
For years the film has been out of circulation in an English-friendly version, but Arrow's extras-free UK PAL DVD offers a fine widescreen transfer with English subtitles and is well worth tracking down.
Pierre Salvadori shows a deft touch, throwing in sly spins on genre staples like the mechanics of paying hitmen half in advance and incorporating jokes into the equally sly production design - Rochefort's family home is filled with portraits of famous deaths, assassinations and handguns while even the childhood mobile above his bed is made up of miniature murder weapons. Then there's his homicidal mamman, who keeps a scrapbook of his greatest hits and knocks off the staff at her old folks home... It doesn't quite know how to end, running into a bit of turbulence in the finale before coming in for a smooth landing, but it's still one of Rochefort's finest hour-and-a-halfs, and his two ill-fated co-stars manage to more than hold their own as well (Trintignant died as a result of a head wound sustained in a fight with her boyfriend and Depardieu died of pneumonia after having his leg amputated). You may have to pay attention to get the most out of it, but it rewards the effort with a surprisingly delightful film.
For years the film has been out of circulation in an English-friendly version, but Arrow's extras-free UK PAL DVD offers a fine widescreen transfer with English subtitles and is well worth tracking down.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Released on DVD for the first time, no doubt to cash in on the imminent British remake with Bill Nighy, Rupert Grint et al, this is a minor classic. It follows a familiar(-ish) plotline: hitman falls for his target and turns protector, but played as a very funny farce with some great acting, especially from Jean Rochefort.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Murder can be funny
This film is enjoyable on many levels. It is an action film, a love story and also a comedy. I enjoyed it so much I bought the British remake (2010) which isn't bad, uses much of... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Robert Collman
Excellent movie for francophiles
A very funny movie, but with very limited english sub-titling. Ideal for french language students with many examples of idiomatic french.
Published 17 months ago by Rupert
At Last
Having taped this film from TV many years ago, I have been trying to get hold of a DVD version forever. Due to cashing in on the release of the remake it's here at last! Read more
Published 20 months ago by Dan Finn
Sharp as whippet, but with underlying tenderness
The French title, "Cible Emouvante", means "Moving Target", but I guess since there was already a Paul Newman movie of that name they weren't allowed to use it. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2010 by Peter Scott-presland
Oh for goodness sake put this out on DVD - PLEASE!
This is a great film - very funny in a dry kind of way, and a fine tribute to Guillaume Depardieu and Marie Trintignant (both sadly RIP). Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2008 by J. Wyper
Contract killer continuing the family tradition, as you do..
Amusing film starring Jean Rochefort (unforgettable as the Hairdressers Husband in 1991) as an assassin. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2000 by Juliette Crooks
a very stylish black comedy (French)
This is a superb black comedy about a professional assasin and his "apprentice" (Gerard Depardieu's son Guillaime). Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2000
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
