Fifty-eight years after the first public screening of this awkward (and often missed due to lack of resources) first essay, I am astonished to note the reluctance of television programmers faced with the so-called intolerance of Corsican nationalists, who had to era, considered this film to be a blasphemy of corsitude!
In reality this pataphysical comedy (which Jean-Christophe Averty appreciated) is a satire of political mores and of the small electoral jumble practiced in the local “democrassouille”; it has no political significance. She claims to be Boris Vian, a parody of genre and one could qualify her spirit as that of an anarchist humor …
As proof, the last replica of Francis Blanche fell into the water in the port of Bastia, which answers the question “Captain, where did you learn to swim? “: ” in politics ! »…
The performance of Louis de Funès, who plays an “honor bandit” in a parody of Merimee, is as hilarious as that which he had performed a few years earlier in “La traversée de Paris” (1956), embodying the irascible Jambier grocer-45 rue Poliveau: his comic presence never saturate because it is divided into five or six sequences throughout the film.
In addition, despite the weight (sometimes a bit cumbersome) of Francis Blanche, the Corsican village where “La Vendetta” was filmed * takes part well in the action whose excellent actors are Olivier Hussenot and Rosy Varte are the playmakers as well as Jean Lefebvre, Mario Carotenuto, Charles Blavette, Christian Mery and Marisa Merlini.
Finally, note that the young actress embodying the daughter of the “bandit of honor”, Geneviève Galea, was the heroine of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Carabiniers” … before being the mother of Emmanuelle Béart.
I made this update for the anniversary of this film, which marked the beginning (and the end) of my “career” as a fiction filmmaker, in order to answer many questions asked by readers of this blog.
Jean A. Cherasse
Nb / this film is a French-Italian co-production
* Vescovato, a few km south of Bastia
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