115 minutes
9/8/1982
The plot in this story weaves around like a New Year's reveler at four in the morning, heading first in one direction and then in another, with the intention of going home if things would just stop moving. Bernard (Gerard Depardieu) is a doctor whose Hippocratic oath was a hypocritic failure -- the not-so-good doctor kills his wife because she is having an affair, and he kills her lover too. Then he joins the French Foreign Legion. On his way to the former French colonies in Africa, the plane he is in crashes, and Rossi, a "friend" on the plane with some overweight in carry-on money, shoots Bernard and takes off, leaving him for dead. He is nursed back to life and health by friendly villagers and just his luck, he not only manages to make his fortune in Africa, he also nabs a French passport from a dying man who will clearly not need it anymore unless the Pearly Gates have a French guard.
Gérard Depardieu
as Gérard Berger / Bernard Vigo
Souad Amidou
as Zina Khelifa
Hakim Ghanem
as Ali
Jean Rochefort
as Charles-Henri Rossi
Roger Planchon
as Inspecteur Valin
Jacques Villeret
as Inspecteur Coleau
Christine Fersen
as Jane la voisine
Smaïn
as Abdel
François Clavier
as Castel
Philippe Brizard
as Le conseiller
Tania Sourseva
as Madame Huysmans
Jean-Michel Ribes
as Client de Zina
Corinne Dacla
as La femme de Gérard