Le gang des otages (The Hostage Gang). 1973. France/Italy. Directed by Édouard Molinaro. Screenplay by Alphonse Boudard. With Bulle Ogier, Daniel Cauchy, Gilles Ségal. DCP courtesy Gaumont. In French; English subtitles. 86 min.
Some 20 years before La Cage aux folles, Édouard Molinaro was known for some pretty nifty séries noires (hardboiled crime stories), including Back to the Wall (starring Jeanne Moreau), Witness in the City (with Lino Ventura and Sandra Milo), and La Mort de Belle (one of the best of all Georges Simenon adaptations). There’s none of the romanticizing of Bonnie and Clyde in his 1973 movie The Hostage Gang, about a pair of carefree fugitives who find themselves in over their heads. The Hostage Gang is a real rediscovery, featuring Daniel Cauchy (Bob le flambeur) as the volatile drifter and Bulle Ogier as the hooker with a heart of fool’s gold; the brash color cinematography of Raoul Coutard; and a knowing and often comical script by Alphonse Boudard, whose expertise in counterfeiting and safecracking made him a target both of the Nazis and postwar French officials.