The time of crime

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Movie
German title The time of crime (FRG)
Attention, bandits! - time of crime (GDR)
Original title Attention bandits!
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1987
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Claude Lelouch
script Claude Lelouch,
Pierre Uytterhoeven
production Claude Lelouch ,
Tania Zazulinsky
music Francis Lai
camera Jean-Yves Le Mener
cut Hugues Darmois ,
Sophie Bhaud
occupation

The time of crime (Original title: Attention bandits! ) Is a French gangster film from 1987 . Directed by Claude Lelouch . The script was written by Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven .

action

Four young crooks raided the Cartier jewelry store in Paris and made rich booty. Their leader Julien Bastide, known as Mozart, visits Simon Verini on his estate and suggests that he sell the stolen jewelry. Simon and his assistant Charles, called Charlot, meet the four bandits. Simon examines the booty and agrees to raise ten million francs for it in Amsterdam.

When Charlot returns to Verini's estate, he finds the steward and housekeeper tied and gagged. They report that Verini's wife Françoise was kidnapped. Simon returns and receives a phone call from the kidnapper asking him to hand over the jewelry as a price for the release of his wife. Simon agrees, goes to the agreed meeting point and hands over the suitcase with the stolen property. While the masked kidnapper fled with the booty, he shot Françoise.

Simon hides her mother's death from his twelve-year-old daughter Marie-Sophie and claims that she went to see her grandmother, who was sick, to look after her. He brings Marie-Sophie to an exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. He compensates the four jewel thieves with his own money. The police are waiting for him at home, the inspector finds a valuable piece of jewelry from the Cartier robbery in his car and arrests him. He is sentenced to ten years in prison.

From prison he writes to Marie-Sophie that he was in Brazil on business with her mother and could therefore not visit her. Only years later does he admit to her that he was arrested and that her mother is no longer alive. When Simon is released, Marie-Sophie is a grown young woman. She waits for him in front of the prison, and father and daughter hug each other.

You drive to the family's former estate, which now belongs to a different owner. Marie-Sophie's mother was secretly buried under trees there. You visit the grave and are watched by the new owners of the estate. They mistakenly suspect that the jewelry from the Cartier robbery was buried here. They open the grave and find the skeleton of Marie-Sophie's mother. You notify the police.

Simon and Charlot arrange to meet the four jewel thieves for a meal together. Simon still suspects that one of the four thieves murdered his wife. Mozart dances with Marie-Sophie. After dinner, he leads Simon into the kitchen, where the Verinis' former housekeeper is waiting for him. She admits that her husband, who has since left her, killed Simon's wife. Her husband's brother was also involved in planning the crime. The two brothers then bought a restaurant in Burgundy .

Simon and Charlot drive, accompanied by Mozart and Marie-Sophie, to the restaurant of the two brothers. At gunpoint, Simon demands that the receptionist hand over the two room keys. While Mozart and Marie-Sophie are waiting at the reception, Simon and Charlot break into the room of Françoise Verini's murderer. When he reaches for a pistol, Simon and Charlot's brothers are shot. The receptionist wants to alert the police, whereupon Mozart also shoots him.

Marie-Sophie is appalled by the murders and bitter accusations against the men. They take her to her fiancé Antoine and hope that she will calm down again. The police are already waiting for Simon in the hotel. He still has the revolver with him and is arrested immediately. This time he expects a prison sentence of twenty to twenty-five years. Marie-Sophie comes to visit him in prison and promises that she will do it every week now.

Mozart fell in love with Marie-Sophie, but she told him that she would marry her fiancé Antoine. She wants her father to be released from prison. Mozart explains to her that it is impossible to escape from this maximum security prison. Finally he asks her if he will get her father out of prison if he will marry him. She answers with yes.

Mozart learns from a newspaper that that evening the Soviet head of state is attending an opera performance in the Paris Opera . Then the brilliant idea comes to him: He calls the chief of the security forces and explains to him that he has hidden a bomb in the ceiling of the opera. He demanded that the opera performance should not be interrupted and that the Soviet head of state should not leave his place in the opera. His demand is that Simon Verini be released immediately, before the end of the opera performance. If his conditions have been met, he will tell security how to defuse the bomb. Otherwise, he'll blow up the opera house.

The bluff works: Simon Verini is released from prison and sits in a taxi while the radio broadcasts the news that he has escaped. He meets with Manouchka, a friend of the family, and asks her to find him a place to hide. He is accommodated in a room on the banks of the Seine, and the landlord offers him and Charlot to take them both to Germany on a cargo ship the next day .

Mozart calls Marie-Sophie and releases her from her promise to marry him. She is impressed by this renunciation as well as that Mozart managed to get her father released. She comes to the conclusion that her fiancé Antoine is okay for good times, but not a firm hold in crisis situations. She suggests to Mozart that she and he could try each other, after which he kisses her gently. While Simon and Charlot drive away on the cargo ship, Marie-Sophie, Mozart and Manouchka wave goodbye.

background

During the film, in addition to the music by Francis Lai, parts of the slow movements from the piano concertos No. 20 (KV 466) and No. 21 (KV 467) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as an excerpt from his overture to the opera "Die Zauberflöte" will be heard .

criticism

The lexicon of international films ruled that the film was "illogical and unbelievable". The film is a fairy tale about the idealized underworld in France, staged in “flavourful images”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The time of crime. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 25, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used