The Worst Film Ever

Absolutely the worst movie.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

A movie I've seen several times when I was a kid, I was only 9 years old, I liked it very much then, I nearly wept when they put Letitia (Joanna Shimkus) dead in the diving suit, and let it drop to the seabed, the scene is impressive even now (May 2016). All the underwater filming is cool. Delon? He appears in the famous trench, with dark glasses, like in Le Samouraï but is not at the same height of the character Jef Costello. Anyway, it's not bad. Ventura is natural as ever. Shimkus is tidy and nice. Serge Reggiani he's credible too. The music of François de Roubaix, as usual impressive, increases the dramatic value. Robert Enrico, who gave us the Boulevard du Rhum(1971)(with the same Lino Ventura) and Le vieux fusil(1975), two other good movies, is a honorable film director. Not outdone José Giovanni, another heavy of the French cinema, here the author of the script and dialogues, after his own novel.

This interesting as well as intimate story is a passionate retelling and a touching drama about three friends , two men an a woman ; all of them develop a wonderful friendship . This top-drawer motion picture mingles tenderness , drama , warm humor , emotion and sensibility . It deals with two adventurers and best friends, Roland (Lino Ventura , fetish actor of filmmaker Robert Enrico) , a Grand Prix driver, and Manu (Alain Delon) , a daredevil pilot . Manu is victim of a joke that costs him his pilot's license . The agreeable duo meets Alicia (Joanna Shimkus who subsequently married Sidney Poitier) , a sensitive sculptor who dreams of buying an old fort in Charente-Maritime . With seeming contrition , the jokers tell Roland and Manu about a crashed aircraft lying on the ocean floor off the coast of Congo stuffed with jewels and other riches . The Congo journey results to be a treason , they are double-crossed by the pilot (Serge Reggniani) of the crashed plane and the adventurers must pick up the pieces . Later on , they carry out a voyage to Boyardville , Île d'Oléron, Charente-Maritime, and its island : ¨Fort Boyard¨, (France) , where takes place several adventures and risks . There they are pitted against a pack of human sharks (Guy Delorme , Hand Meyer among others) in a tragic ending .This exciting film contains romantic elements , brooding drama , intrigue , tragic events and thrills especially on its final part . It packs lingering images in which are narrated the lovely relationship between the amiable Alain Delon and Lino Ventura along with the gorgeous Joanna Simkus , as the three adventurers set off to find a sunk loot . This timeless movie displays haunting and powerful scenes , it's plenty of frames which stay forever in the mind . Romantic thriller that deals with a particular buddy movie between Lino Ventura and Alain Delon , a special relationship among two different characters along with the enticing Joanna Shimkus , turning into a beloved friendship and a marvelous love story . Top notch performance from protagonist trio , Lino Ventura as the tough as well as sensible driver , Alain Delon as a valiant pilot and special mention to Joanna Shimkus as Laetitia , an artistic young woman who treats them like brothers . Lively musical score by Francois Roubaix is enjoyable and cheerful , full of piano sounds and whistles , including catching leitmotif . Colorful and shimmer cinematography filmed on location in Boyardville, Île d'Oléron, Charente-Maritime, and Fort Boyard, Charente France . The motion picture was stunningly written and directed by Robert Enrico , being based on an excellent novel by Jose Giovanni , a notorious writer and filmmaker . Enrico started directing short movies , as his shorts gave him critical acclaim very early in his career. Having become the maker of popular movies after an arty debut, he was awarded the best movie "César" for "Le vieux Fusil" or ¨Old gun¨ before becoming the long-time president of "L'Académie des Césars". He was a good professional who directed interesting films as ¨Jailsbird vacation¨ , ¨Le secret¨ ,¨Rum Runners¨, ¨The wise guys¨ , ¨An occurrence at Owl Creek¨ and his masterpiece ¨The adventurers¨ . Rating : 7,5 , better than average. Worthwhile watching . The film will appeal to French cinema lovers .

Out of an Alain Delon three-film marathon, this was the one I was most looking forward to but, surprisingly, ended up being the most disappointing. The fact that the Italian TV broadcast suffered from intermittent instances of bad reception had a lot to do with this, I guess, but I also found the film (which was adapted from a novel by crime expert Jose' Giovanni, dealing with a search for treasure lost at sea) rather an inconsequential trifle! Still, the proceedings are considerably bolstered by attractive locations, the delectable Joanna Shimkus (even if her character, who hitches with stars Delon and Lino Ventura far too quickly, is killed off half-way through) and Francois de Roubaix's delightful score. Delon – playing a dashing, reckless flier – is his typically inexpressive self, but Ventura is as strong as ever as his inventor/racing-car enthusiast partner; also notable is Serge Reggiani as a nervous yet shifty hanger-on who eventually reveals the exact whereabouts of the crashed airplane in which the loot is stashed. Incidentally, the abandoned fortress in mid-ocean (Shimkus dreams of owning it, but which is eventually purchased by Ventura after her demise with his share of the recovered fortune) is a great setting – which director Enrico ably employs for the film's action climax (even if the gangsters who assault Ventura and Delon, who are also after the money, make for a bunch of anonymous villains).

The winning two-men-one-woman formula has been around a long time. Three quarters of a century ago Noel Coward wrote Design For Living as a stage vehicle for himself and the Lunts and it reached the screen soon afterwards albeit greatly rewritten by Ben Hecht and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. MGM got lots of mileage out of the format in such titles as San Francisco, Boom Town and Test Pilot, all pairing Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy with respectively Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert and Myrna Loy. One of the tricks, of course, is to put spin on it so that in San Francisco Tracey played a priest therefore not a serious sexual rival for MacDonald; about five years ago Patrice Lecomte gave the formula an airing in Une Chance sur deux and his twist was to have the female - in this case the dreaded Vanessa Paradis - trying to decide which of two middle aged men, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, was her biological father and involving both in some heavy duty mayhem with the Russian mafia. Les Aventuriers features a younger Delon this time around teamed with Lino Ventura with Joanna Shimkus forming the third link. I have to confess that this one passed me by until I was alerted to it by a French friend who went one better by supplying a DVD. I've now watched it and read most of the comments here, including a perceptive one as lyrical as the movie itself from another friend, Galina. I can only endorse everything that's been said here. This is simply a Stunning and Beautiful film celebrating friendship and children playing at being grown-ups. All three principals are outstanding as is Serge Reggiani who has a supporting role. One of the film's strengths is its refusal to take what is essentially a fairy story to its happy-ever-after logical conclusion and illustrate the heavy price tag that comes with being eternally young at heart and refusing to grow up. A wonderful antidote to the New Wavelet and a reminder that movies were conceived to bring joy and pleasure to the masses rather than ego trips for wanna-be academics.