Backfire (1964 film)

Backfire
	Film poster
Directed by	Jean Becker
Produced by	Paul-Edmond Decharme
Screenplay by	Jean Becker ; Maurice Fabre ; Didier Goulard ; Luis Marquina; Claude Sautet; dialogue; Daniel Boulanger
Based on	the novel by Clet Coroner
Starring	Jean-Paul Belmondo; Jean Seberg; Enrico Maria Salerno
Music by	Grégorio García Ségura ; Martial Solal
Cinematography	Edmond Séchan
Edited by	Monique Kirsanoff
Production; company	Capotole Movies; South Pacific Films
Distributed by	CCFC (France); Royal Films International (US)
Release date	4 September 1964 (France);
Running time	97 mins
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	2,007,088 admissions (France)[1]

Backfire (French: Échappement libre, Italian: Scappamento aperto, Spanish: A escape libre) is a 1964 French crime film directed by Jean Becker, which stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, reuniting for the first time since Breathless (1960).

Plot

A criminal organisation offers a Parisian man, David, $10,000 to transport a car across Europe. They tell him little about it except that drugs are not involved. He is accompanied by a photographer, Olga.

David discovers he is smuggling gold. The two travel to Beirut then Damascus. They fall in love and David wants the gold for himself.

Cast

Jean-Paul Belmondo as David Ladislas
Jean Seberg as Olga Celan
Enrico Maria Salerno as Mario
Gert Fröbe as Fehrman
Renate Ewert as Comtesse
Jean-Pierre Marielle as Van Houde
Diana Lorys as Rosetta
Fernando Rey as the Lebanese policeman
Wolfgang Preiss as Grenner
Michel Beaune as Daniel
Roberto Camardiel as Stephanidès
Fernando Sancho as Ylmaz
Giacomo Furia as Nino

Production

The film was made by the same team who had produced Banana Peel (1963).

It was to have starred Jean Louis Trintignant but he withdrew and was replaced by Belmondo.[2]

Filming took place from February 10 to April 7, 1964. Costa-Gavras was an assistant director.[1]

Reception

The film was the 19th most popular movie at the French box office in 1964.[3]

In 2020 Fimink wrote "The film’s existence is ideal useless trivia to annoy people with now that the Jean Seberg biopic has come out."[4]

gollark: Keyboard gloves plus working overlay glasses would be very neat.

gollark: With the somewhat awful state of software on phones I would *not* want to use one as my main computer.

gollark: Not all of them support video output over USB.

gollark: Well, you know what they say about generalizing from single data points.

gollark: Yes, I will just plug my giant desktop keyboard into my phone, that will work very well in my pocket.

References

"Box office information for Backfire". Box Office Story. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
Coates-Smith, Michael; McGee, Garry (4 May 2012). The Films of Jean Seberg. McFarland. p. 89.
"1964 French box office". Box Office Story. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
Vagg, Stephen (February 3, 2020). "Top 10 Unmemorable Films Starring Legendary Screen Couples". Filmink.

External links

Backfire on IMDb
Backfire at Le Film Guide
Backfire at Uni France
Review of film at New York Times

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[box-1] "Box office information for Backfire". Box Office Story. Retrieved 1 September 2016.

[2] Coates-Smith, Michael; McGee, Garry (4 May 2012). The Films of Jean Seberg. McFarland. p. 89.

[3] "1964 French box office". Box Office Story. Retrieved 28 August 2016.

[4] Vagg, Stephen (February 3, 2020). "Top 10 Unmemorable Films Starring Legendary Screen Couples". Filmink.