COUP DE TETE (BERSERK, HOT HEAD)

France, 1978, 95 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Dewaere.
Directed by Jean- Jacques Annaud.

Coup de Tete (Berserk, Hot Head) is the second feature directed by Jean Jacques Annaud, who made the Oscar-winning Black and White in Colour and the international success Quest for Fire. This is a satiric story of a French drifter who suffers a series of mishaps, including being dropped from the soccer team, who is needed for the success of the town's team and is released from jail, feted and has the possibility of a successful life. He then turns on the hypocrites of the town. The film has a deal to say about hysteria associated with sport and its turning its fans into barbarians and schemers - worse than the original drifter. The film relates to Annaud's first feature with its satirical presentation of respectable people acting in childish fashion in serious situations. The film has Patrick Dewaere, who was an actor of verve in a number of film during his short career. The gallery of important people in the French Provincial town is most persuasive. The film has an interesting ending with its threat of eruptive violence which does not eventuate. The point is made nonetheless very tellingly. The film is lightweight but effective.

1. The entertainment value of the film? Comedy, drama, satire? Critique of French manners and morals? The work of the director and his satirising institutions? The screenplay by Francis Veber (A Pain in the A..., La Cage Au Folles, Partners)? The serious comic touch? French rhetorical speeches making points? The presentation of hypocrisy and the eruption of vengeance? The effectiveness of a humorous social critique?

3. The atmosphere of the French provincial town: administration, industry, the police, football, prisons, shops etc.? The look and the feel of the town, the attention to detail? Colour photography? Editing - especially for the football sequences? The jaunty atmospheric score?

4. The focus on sports and enthusiasm? The admiration of the footballers and their heroic status, appreciation of skill? The fanaticism of the fans? The use and abuse of sport? The organisers and their exercise of power - not related to the playing of sport? Skills and the spirit of football? The owner and his inspiration for hate as motive for winning? The audience identifying with sport and the response? The audience being put on-side - and then satirised?

5. The initial tone of the film, the credits, the praise of Francois? His voice-over comment and giving his viewpoint? The flashbacks and the puzzle about how he achieved fame from being a drifter? The opening and the immediate flashback indicating the shifting attitudes throughout the film?

6. Francois as the average young man in the town, his drive, his being on the soccer team, his push to get the goal and the injury of Berthier? The huge accumulation of disasters: being dismissed from the soccer team, his being fired from his work - and his removing his clothes and walking through the factory, his experience of trying to get jobs in the town, his comment on his international travel by meeting the many races working in the French provincial town, his encounter with Marie and the phone call intercepted by Berthier, his visit to her and the Farce on the lift? The arrest and the accusations? His being bullied by the police, the line-up and the identification, his finishing up in jail? His appearance, attitudes, language, manners? The townspeople judging him and despising him? Their decision to use him? The audience's attitude towards him and his behaviour?

7. Life in jail, the ordinariness, his playing soccer in the yard? The transition with the warden calling him? The gesture of friendship? The old man supporting him on the team? The change with his escape through the toilet window, the truck driver (and his story to keep him awake - and the reprise of this at the end)? His confronting Stephanie? His discovering what type he was, the impossibility of revenge on her? His being helped by Stephanie?

8. His playing in the match, the pep talk and the urging to hate, the prizes promised at the half-time, the cheering support of the crowd? His successful goals? His becoming a hero? The tour of the bridal suite in the hotel? His wanting to go back to jail and his being ironically kicked out of jail? The quick change of fortune ~ and the fickle attitudes of all involved?

9. His relationship with Marie, the phone call and her boyfriend, the accident on the lift? The transition to Stephanie and the car, the rape -and the audience assuming it was Francois? His confronting her in her room? The evidence and the discovery of the truth? Her going to the police? Her supporting Francois - and his going to visit her at the end?

10. Sivardiere and his authority in the town, the factory, the team? Sacking Francois, firing him from the job - and Francois' removal of his clothes in the office? Sivardiere despising him yet using him to save Berthier from prison, to save the team from disaster? His assistants as yes-men,, their following Sivardiere. attitude towards the team? Their giving evidence against Francois? The coach and his desperation? The team and their practice? Berthier and his celebrity status?

11. The bus crash and the injuries to the team, the hospital sequences? The manoeuvres and discussions to get Francois on the team? Berthier and the truth?

12. The manoeuvres to rehabilitate Francois: changing the police testimony, the ringing of the judge, the prison governor not letting Francois back in? The comments on the manipulation of the law?

13. Francois and his scaring the waiter in the hotel? The demonstration with the car and his frightening the car salesman? The build-up to the invitation to the banquet? The atmosphere of the meal? His speech and his insulting the guests? The build-up to the threats? His frightening them all? The irony of his not carrying out his threats - success through non-violent violence? Sivardiere and the taking of his wife, her expecting to be raped but merely made to walk ten kilometres, the car salesman smashing his own windows, the furniture salesman and his wife and their preparations, the bar-owner and his ordering the new glass, the police and their being slapped?

14. The peacefulness of the ending after the exposure of hypocrisy? The audience pleased with Francois? His disgust with the town? His withdrawal from the football team and their elimination from the competition? His self-respect?

15. The film as an allegory about French provincial life, politics?