Audience Member
Even after 45 years, this movie is brilliant.
A thrilling story, absolute top-actors (Ventura, Dewaere) and still actual.
There are movies, you like even after watching them frequent.
But those are rare, you really love.
The French film was popular in Europe, specificly in East- and in West-Germany, what wasn't normal in the 70s, due to the fact, that in the former GDR movies from the west were almost abandoned.
In my eyes, an absolute "must see".
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A perfect classic of the good cop movies of the 70's. If you don't have the subtitles, you'd better be French to understand the subtleties of the dialogues. Patrick Dewaere plays the "mad dog" assistant of the old master, Verjeat, played by the famous Lino Ventura. The story takes place in the city of Rouen, in Normandy. It speaks about the murder of a cop and a left-winged politically engaged young guy. Commissioner Verjeat is going to work on the case, accompanied by the passionate young Lefèvre, played by Dewaere. Verjeat will realize that the murderer is from the extreme-right, and linked to a powerful local politician. The superiors of Verjeat are compromised and probably corrupted also. They will try to "buy" Verjeat by sending him to the other side of France, in Montpellier, with a promotion. But Verjeat uses all the tricks he can to stay in Rouen, for him to finish the case. Helped by Lefèvre and other faithful inspectors -who admire him- Verjeat fights against his cowardly hierarchy, and tries to catch the murderer before being sent away to Montpellier. The movie has all the qualities and is very Frenchy in style (the qualities of what is called "Frenchy", but without the flaws). Rare but great music, absolutely perfect interpretation, great lines of dialogues... The scenes of action are rare but sober and perfectly, realistically, well-filmed. What to say else? One of the best sequence is when the old cop and the young "mad dog" one rest on a bench, near the river, at 5 a.m., disillusioned, after having drunk too much. They philosophy about their job. The old Verjeat says: "You will end up like me. I try to do a good job but I'm 50, I'm alone..." The young Lefèvre replies: "But we're Kings! We're free!"... The duo works perfectly. The old cop Verjeat is "blasé", he walks with the hands in his pockets, he nearly doesn't move... And the younger one shouts, moves frantically, does eccentric things... The character played by Ventura sometimes tells to Lefèvre: "Will you never stop? You exhaust me...". But you can see that he likes, in fact, his young subordinate. For a French guy like me, "Adieu Poulet" is what a perfect French cop movie should be, in my opinion. Note that the title means "So long, chicken". In French slang, a chicken doesn't mean that you are a coward, it means that you're a "Cop". This title refers to the fact that the old commissioner is soon going to be sent away to the other side of the country, and that he will probably never see again his young faithful inspectors. Let's note also that, in real life, the old actor Ventura, who plays Verjeat, admired his young partner, Dewaere, even if they were from a different generation and had very different political ideas.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
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