Michel Trégan

A bicycle race is held every year in a pass of the Alps called Parpaillon. With the energy of a skillful cyclist perhaps as a great tribute to François, the mailman played by Tati in The Big Day, Moullet makes a comedy by pedaling at a pace that allows him to reinvent the possibilities of film gags.

Le Château Bovis is a cluster of houses on the slope of the hill at L'Estaque, facing due south toward the vast expanse of Marseille’s harbour. Overlooking the large dry docks and the vista of the industrial port, a long esplanade stretches across almost its entire length, confronting the void. Numerous windows open out onto the sea.

The film concerns a group of disparate types who support themselves by running guns to the Arabs. On the surface, it would seem that these characters are bad guys. In fact, the guns are to be used by a resistance group who hope to continue shipping oil to the West, despite the despotic curbs imposed upon fuel shipments by their leaders.