I had never heard of Luc Moullet before. I read about A Girl Is a Gun and the film came on a double feature with The Smugglers, which I watched first because it was listed first on the DVD. The man is a French New Wave director who never really hit it terribly big. Smugglers is his second feature following the tale of a customs agent who has assembled a smuggling operation with two ladies. Naturally, being french, he gets romantic with both of them. The women don't really know how to react when they learn about each other. Sometimes they try and kill one another, sometimes not. Generally the film gives in to French New Wave randomness pretty quickly. A good portion of the film involves the two women chasing each other/escaping with each other from the SMUGGLERS UNION and the government. Another portion involves the trio quitting the life of smuggling to persue the GRAND ADVENTURE of City Life working in an office. I mean, it's fun in the French New Wave-y way, a bit less pretentious than a lot of the films of that time. More prone to general silliness, as well. I didn't particularly laugh out loud by any means, but the movie is clever. And you also can to watch Francoise Vatel run around in a bikini a lot. And that lady has a lot of pluck and is quite shapely. ;) There's also a pretty adorable sequence of her BRAVELY making hot cocoa at her desk. As I look back on the film, I'm feeling quite fond towards it. At one point, they throw everything they own into a river. Later on in the film, they regret this and get everything back. It's told with a voiceover and we see footage of the stuff flowing down the river reversed. I mean, a movie that pulls that stunt has got some good ideas in my book. Also ladies wandering the desert mumbling nonsense is awesome. It really does move quite slowly, but I was still surprised the movie was only eighty minutes long. But I think the pacing made me a little critical of it. It's a fun movie to watch. I'm interested in A Girl Is A Gun but moreso in Bridgette and Bridgette which features Vatel as one of the Bridgettes.
THE HARROWING LIFE OF SMUGGLERS!
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