The Professional

I Really Think He Was “The French Steve McQueen”

Our today’s person of interest was a boxer and a very promising European football/soccer player before becoming an extremely successful actor on the Big Screen in Europe in the 60s through the 80s.

Born in a suburb of Paris in 1934, Jean-Paul Belmondo, shot to fame in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 classic Breathless which was later rehashed with Richard Gere.

He rapidly became the most popular French star of the decade, working with top directors like Louis Malle and Francois Truffaut.

Belmondo was a major box-office draw in countless movies and the epitomy of the French rogue in films like 1930s gangster saga Borsalino and spy thriller That Man From Rio.

Later he starred in a bunch of far-fetched action sagas and comedies, preferring to do his own stunts. You know how I appreciate that!

American movie and TV series buffs will like this:

Belmondo was saluted in a 1967 episode of the U.S. television sitcom Get Smart.

In the episode “The Spirit is Willing” a top agent of the sinister spy agency KAOS is named Paul John Mondebello, an obvious alteration of Belmondo’s name.

My personal favorite Belmondo movie is The Professional (Le Professionel) directed by French director Georges Lautner, which is based on the award-winning 1976 novel Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal by Patrick Alexander.

The music was composed by the legendary Ennio Morricone and the theme music Chi Mai became a worldwide hit.

The plot goes something like this:

Belmondo plays French secret agent Beaumont, who is sent to Malagawi (fictional African country) to kill their president for life (=dictator) Colonel Njala. But before he can get to Malagawi, the political situation changes and the French secret service betrays him to African authorities. After a long and of course unfair trial (Belmondo’s character is drugged) he is slapped with a long-term prison sentence.

Our hero however escapes to France and lets his former chiefs know that he still plans to kill Njala, who is in France for an official visit. That’s his way to get revenge on the ones who betrayed him. And boy, do they get nervous and send their henchmen on his trail.

Belmondo, I mean Beaumont, is always at least one step ahead of them. And in the process humiliating and even eliminating some of the major betrayers. He even manages to kill Njala simply by leading his rivals to accidentally killing the dictator.

But as he tries to escape ….

Heck, I can’t give everything away, because you might watch the movie one day, right?!

Here’s the trailer (in French) with some action scenes all shot about 30 years ago.

Au revoir, mes amis!