| View Larger Image | Cartouche | DVDStarring: Jacques Balutin, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raoul Billerey, Claudia Cardinale, Enzo Cerusico
Also With: Jean-Paul Belmondo (Primary Contributor), Claudia Cardinale (Primary Contributor)
| List Price: | $19.98 | |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 116 minutes | | Format: | Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Starz / Anchor Bay | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Aspect Ratio: | 2.35:1 | | Release Date: | April 08, 2003 | | Sales Rank: | 89,987th |
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 8 reviews)
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A Rousing Swashbuckler With A Dark Ending by C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)  4 Stars
November 24, 2005
Cartouche is an unusual and interesting swashbuckler. For the first half, it's a raucous, funny tale of venality and romance that takes place in pre-Revolutionary France. Then it moves gradually into something more serious, and ends on a somber and decidedly fatalistic note.
Louis-Dominique Bourguigon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a rogue and a thief, quick with his fingers or his sword. He's part of a large Parisian gang headed by Malichot (Marcel Dalio). Dominique thinks he can do better, misjudges and with Malichot's henchmen after him, decides it would be prudent to join the army. He signs on with two friends, La Doceur (Jess Hahn) and La Taupe (Jean Rochefort), he met in a tavern. As cowardly realists, they become the only survivors of a bloody battle. As survivors, they're hailed as heroes. As heroes, they're ordered to be in the front line of tomorrow's battle. So they steal the Army's payroll and head back to Paris. On the way, Dominique encounters a dancer who shows more cleavage than the Grand Canyon. "My name is Venus," she tells him. "I'm nineteen. No parents, but lots of lovers." After another tavern fight, this one as funny as anything the Three Stooges could have come up with, the four of them make it to Paris. Dominque confronts Malichot, who at heart is a bit of a groveling coward, and takes over the gang. He now calls himself Cartouche and his rules are simple. "Let bygones be bygones. No bloodshed. Aim at the powerful. Keep accounts and give everyone a fair deal." All goes well until Cartouche meets for a second time Isabelle de Ferrussac, wife of the head of police. Venus (Claudia Cardinale) may love him but he is drawn toward Isabelle (Odile Versois). And slowly the story moves into more serious complications involving jealousy, betrayal, loyalty and sacrifice. I enjoyed the film a lot, but someone who watches it needs to be prepared that this swashbuckler doesn't end with more happy swashbuckling.
The film has a great look about it, with horses galloping across the French countryside, lavish costumes and ornate settings. The photography is as lush as the serving wenches. Belmondo makes a terrific athletic hero, adept at fighting or humor, believable as a lover or a leader. Claudia Cardinale as Venus and Odile Versois as Isabelle vividly represent two opposites of a desirable woman in the movies...earthy and direct or shy and a challenge. Cardinale comes off better, I think, because the role has passion as well as some good lines. "Enjoy life, Dominique," she tells him, "it wards off death." Later she points out to him that "when you are very rich, even richer than you are now, hay will be the same price." Marcel Dalio is especially enjoyable as the overbearing and then obsequious Malichot who winds up with a brand on his forehead and an abbreviated life. He was Jewish and he and his wife barely escaped France when the Germans took over. He wound up in Hollywood during the war playing small bits. In Casablanca he was the roulette man at Rick's who, with Rick's okay, helps the young couple make enough winnings to buy the two transit visas. In fact, he was one of France's first-rate film actors. Watch him as Jean Gabin's escape partner in Grand Illusion or in Rules of the Game. After the war he headed back to France and resumed his career as a major French actor.
If you like foreign swashbucklers, you may like Cartouche even with it's dark ending. You might also take a look at Revenge of the Musketeers with Sophie Marceau and Le Bossu with Daniel Autieul. The DVD picture is excellent. There are no extras.
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RIP Philippe de Broca, Farewell, A Bientot by Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States)  5 Stars
November 29, 2004
In CARTOUCHE you made the rest of the 60s filmmakers seem out of date, and in Belmondo and Cardinale you found the perfect actors who could add the bubbles to your brand of filmic champagne. Now that you are gone, we think back to all the pleasures you have given us over the years, from your little parts in BREATHLESS and 400 BLOWS, to your most recent work discovering the Welsh coalminer's daughter Catherine Zeta Jones, and we are grateful to you for your inspired interventions and pizzazz. Not since Ernst Lubitsch has flair been filmed so perfectly and gallantly, and not since Clouzot has action been so well blended with nail-biting suspense. Our hearts are sad today and we wish your extended family well in these difficult days. Belmondo and Cardinale are still with us and thanks to you, we will always have them in excelsis, as the perfect man and woman au cinema. Merci, De Broca!
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Belmondo And Cardinale At Their Best by Cowboy Buddha (Essex UK) 4 Stars
September 10, 2004
A film that, for me, brings back all sorts of fond memories. I first saw it as a teenager during its initial American release in the 60's when I was just discovering that there were some really good films out there that weren't in English. I had loved That Man From Rio and here was the great Jean-Paul Belmondo re-united with director Philippe De Broca in a rollicking swashbuckler. And having the luscious Claudia Cardinale along for the ride didn't hurt either.
Cartouche (also known by the terrible title of Swords Of Blood) is a very French and very Sixties flick. De Broca's loose style of film making encompasses broad comedy, adventure, satire, romance and even tragedy. It is the same style that made The King Of Hearts so memorable and it works just as well here. The story of a charming and incorrigible petty thief who rises to be a sort of bandit chief - after a comic interlude in the army - is the perfect excuse for fist fights, sword fights, chases, and romance with lusty wenches with wonderfully heaving bosoms. The flavor of the 18th century is beautifully captured with a realism that extends to the smallest details. At times, the realistic visuals seem almost at odds with some of the film's more slapstick elements, but it actually contributes to the superb period feel. In this respect, Cartouche is somewhat reminiscent of some of the bawdier bits from that other great Sixties period romp Tom Jones.
Jean-Paul Belmondo is perfect in the title role, not only more than equal to all the physical demands of the part but also moving through all his character's moods effortlessly. Belmondo is a wonderfully natural actor and it is hard to imagine anyone from Hollywood doing this sort of part so well. Co-star Claudia Cardinale has seldom been better or more beautiful - her character is well-named as Venus. She is overflowing with earthy passion both as an outlaw and a lover - even more so as a jealous lover. Both as a teenager and now as an allegedly wiser fifty-something, I could never understand why Belmondo would prefer the icy aristocratic Odile Versois to the magnificently sexy Cardinale.
As usual with these films, Belmondo gets a couple of sidekicks. One is a gentle giant played by Jess Hahn, a sort of European Alan Hale who was forever popping up in films of various languages. The other is a young Jean Rocheforte, that wonderful French actor who would have such a long and impressive career. Here he is The Mole, a slightly more refined bandit with the soul of a poet. The villains are suitably hateful, if not quite in the Basil Rathbone league.
Cartouche is great fun and blessed with true star quality performances from Belmondo and Cardinale. It's one of those movies that is always a joy to take out and watch again. If you're seeing it for the first time, you're in for a real treat.
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DELIGHTFUL ACTION ADVENTURE by Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States) 4 Stars
June 12, 2003
The legendary Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as 18th Century swordsman, thief and rogue Bourguignon, alias CARTOUCHE. But when he meets the beautiful bandit Venus (the luscious Claudia Cardinale), they launch a series of scandalous raids that rock the Parisian aristocracy. The most wanted man in France is about to discover that true love may be the most dangerous caper of all.The great Phillipe de Broca co-wrote and directed this sumptuous and surprising adventure. No extras, but in this case, the movie is more than enough. Recommended.
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"Robin Hood" translated to France + Claudia Cardinale by Gary W. Goldberg (Silver Spring, MD USA) 4 Stars
February 11, 2003
I only take off a point because the color and sound are not quite as good as I would have hoped for a mid-'60s film and it's a tad overlong at 1 hr 55 min. Otherwise, a very entertaining story (NOT a copy of Robin Hood, despite my allusion) combining humor, romance, and some tragedy, well-acted. Claudia Cardinale has never looked or sounded better and is convincing in her role to boot.
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