Coup de Tête

Every underdog has his day, at least in the movies. François (Dewaere) is sacked, abused, banned from his favourite bar and unjustly imprisoned for rape. But an improbable twist of fate turns him into a footballing hero, in a position to take revenge on his old tormentors. In retrospect a collaboration between top farceur Veber and the director to be of intense but mostly humourless spectaculars was bound to be a bit peculiar. Veber lays on the gags and potentially comic situations, which are comprehensively spurned by Annaud who sets about making François so unpleasant that his little vengeances generate minimal entertainment. Interesting forensically though, in the way that a project uniting PG Wodehouse and Joseph Losey might have been.