Le jardinier d'Argenteuil
1966 [FRENCH]
Action / Comedy / Crime

Plot summary
Tulipe, is an old man who lives alone in an old railway carriage in the Argentueil region of Paris. His main passions are gardening and oil painting, but he also has a secret source of income. His godson discovers that Tulipe is actually a master forger, producing perfect copies of 10 franc notes. His godson’s girlfriend sees this as an opportunity to get very rich – but she must persuade Tulipe to forge 500 franc notes. Assuming Tulipe’s agreement, his godson and his girlfriend buy an expensive new car and luxury villa in provincial France – but there is a cruel turn of fate in store for them when Tulipe strikes up a friendship with a millionaire playboy.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
The End is worth the wait
Incredibly boring
Jean Gabin is cast as a very even-tempered character so once the premise is properly exposed (it already takes more than 20min.) there is not much to expect from him. Then the story plods along like they are just shooting some TV newsreel... and conversely a newsreel would be fiercely edited to be concise to a fault.
The supporting cast is mostly OK, great thespians are wasted here: a gang of old timers, Curd Jürgens... Noël Roquevert gets a bit part where color actually diminishes his usual colorful characterization. Serge Gainsbourg's score is non-descript and he kinda fumbles an easy part, always seeming to awkwardly look for his mark (that tells an awful lot about JP Le Chanois's directing engagement); Lilly Pulver is too old for the part and quite frankly just roaming through it (Le Chanois, again; fortunately he stopped making movies after this one).
This is so devoid of momentum, so lacking in energy it eventually looks like a vaudeville desperately trying to catch your attention by continually moving to a different set. Really a sore pain to watch till the end.