The Magnificent One (1973)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

An author writes cheap novels about the adventures of one Bob Saint-Clar, an impossibly handsome, suave and cosmopolitan secret agent. The life of the author is no great fun. He has difficulty in making ends meet and is treated as a slave by his editor, who pretty much answers the question of what would happen if a tapeworm could walk on two legs and speak. When the author meets a beauteous female student - all this and brains too ! - things begin to look better ; but then, the course of true love rarely runs smooth... The life of the author and the exotic adventures of Saint-Clar begin to blend and bleed, like the colors in a cheap fabric - and the results aren't pretty.This is the concept behind "Le Magnifique" ("The Splendid One"), a French comedy about the relationship between an author and his creation and about the dangers and joys of vicarious living. It is also a deliriously surreal take on secret agent movies of the Bond, James Bond kind. (All women adore him ! All men envy him ! He speaks seventeen languages, plays the piano like a god and knows his wines ! He climbs mountains and fights tigers ! He looks sharp in a tuxedo even when burning to a crisp in a volcano !) Belmondo shows himself a most generous artist by throwing himself wholeheartedly into a parody of his usual roles. (As an actor, Belmondo was France's Adventurer-General.) Bisset too delivers a fine performance, both as a determined yet vulnerable student and as Saint-Clars love interest Tatiana. The scenes and dialogues between Saint-Clar and his Tatiana are so delightfully godawful that they belong in a museum.This fine comedy has achieved cult status in France - and rightly so.

The first half of "Le Magnifique" is postmodern tongue-in-cheek genius, a wild, ludicrous and in every department excellent mixture of James Bond spoof, splatter effects, slapstick, intertextual verve and romantic comedy clearly exceeding the ten stars limit, plus a downright irresistible Jacqueline Bisset (and I'm not even into brunettes). The second half, hmm, doesn't really come as a letdown, but sticks more to conventional vaudeville formulas and simply can't live up to the absurd roller-coaster folly already established, a few bitter tones possibly due to Francis Veber, a prolific and superb, but sometimes uneven writer who also worked on the script. The Canal Plus DVD features the French original as well as the English and German dub. As for comic dramas of the 70s, unorthodox and essential viewing.

Anachronistic meets anarchic. This things still got some shelf life, although I do think its potency is somewhat diluted by time. And also perhaps by translation, I would bet there's some clever wordplay going on in parts that were lost upon me. I remember wondering what modern French audiences would think if they ran across "Airplane." Not a fair comparison, but not far off the mark...The dual performance of Jean-Paul Belmondo is definitely a couple of cuts above what you would expect for a film that's basically a laugh lark. I mean the guy is often called upon to take splashy pratfalls, but has to play both virile playboy and nebbish nancy-boy. Yet if you take a still from any scene in the film you could immediately discern which one was on screen.As Bob St. Clair, his overly self-satisfied smile would crack me up, something about its goofy gallantry reminded me of a sadly departed friend. Ken Hamilton, RIP. You shoulda met him...Anyways back to the film...I did enjoy the surreal slips between the film itself and then the book being created within the film. The first one I think was on a beach as the housecleaner blithely waltzes through soldiers storming the sands, vacuuming only to enter a door and voila. Additionally latter battles between the author and his protagonist and/or protagonista mostly worked for me. Though they dipped in shtick.Afterwards, I watched some of it over with my young (3-year old) twin boys, and they liked it, I mean come on those mariachis with the mobile theme music, they were worth the rental alone. And um yeah, Jacqueline Bisset is beauty personified in this...Not a lost classic in my book, nor auteur action...but le funny, certainmont.6/10

Bob Sinclar is the greatest secret agent in the world : he is handsome, strong, intelligent, unstoppable ... and he doesn't exist. You're irritated by the perfection of James (Bond) ? check this movie.This movie looks old, and most of its jokes don't work as well as it worked 31 yrs ago, yet, this movie has to be seen. It is short, and there are some great findings (and some stuff are still funny too). Actually the concepts in the movie are better than the movie itself IMHO, but it's still a nice movie. When I was a kid I LOVED that movie so much !!! BTW, I guess that the name Sinclar comes from who was James Bond at this time (Roger Moore) that was Simon Templar and Lord Sinclair on TV.I almost forgot : if you're a man ... or a lesbian, Jacqueline Bisset is a sufficient enough reason to watch the movie." - coucouroucoucou coucouroucoucou VOS GUEULES !!! cou ... ou ..."Check it out.