A group of rich, elderly men are having a sex party with a bunch of underage girls. Suddenly, there is a crash. Machine guns smash through the windows and let go with an array of bullets, killing everyone. I don’t know how this opening scene played out in 1970 when Solo was released, but watching it today after knowing about Jeffrey Epstein and understanding that really rich men really do get away with a cavalcade of horribleness, it plays like a goddamn fantasy. I nearly applauded. I didn’t only because they got the girls, too.
Buy SoloThe police try to cover up the fact that some of the richest, most powerful men in France were screwing teenagers, and the press mostly doesn’t talk about it. The big news is that they were murdered, and the police must do everything in their power to catch the perpetrators.
The killers are a bunch of teenaged leftist revolutionaries. They are led by Virgille (Denis Le Guillou). He’s an orphan whose brother, Vincent (Jean-Pierre Mocky, who also directed and co-wrote the film), is his legal guardian. Vincent is a musician and jewel thief who travels around Europe stealing jewelry from women, using his violin as a cover. He’s been away for a few years, but he’s returned home just after the killing occurs.
The day after the attack, the police receive a letter telling them about it. It is written with newspaper and magazine cutouts, but signed “Virgile.” They would have gotten it before the attack, but there was a postal-workers strike. Which is the most French thing that’s ever happened in a movie. Because some of the cutout letters came from a leftist magazine with a small subscriber base, the police are able to figure out who Virgile is.
He goes on the run with his sort-of girlfriend Annabelle (Anne Deleuze), who would not admit that relationship designation because love only gets in the way of the revolution. They’ll be pursued by both Vincent and the police.
Weirdly, Annabel will run into Vincent before she reconnects with Virgile. She hitches a ride with him, neither knowing who the other is. He pretends to be bourgeois, mocking her leftist ideals. She’s disgusted by who he is. Naturally, before the film is over, they’ll have sex.
But first he’ll drop her off outside of Paris, she’ll reconnect with Virgile, and Vincent will continue to look for him. The film creates several tense set pieces where any one of our heroes is nearly caught by the police. Virgile and Annabel want to keep up the momentum they gained with the massacre and plan to bomb a restaurant that will be full of more rich, important people. Both Vincent and the police will try and stop them, leading to the films biggest, and best scene.
There are a lot of wonderful small moments scattered throughout the film. It gives each of the main characters, including the cops, scenes in which we get to understand them a little bit. This gives the chase sequences, and set pieces more depth and more thrill.
Take Vincent, for example. He isn’t the bourgeois he pretended to be with Annabel, but neither does he buy into her politics. Yes, that status quo sucks, and he certainly isn’t into law and order, but what they are doing will affect nothing. A change is not gonna come. You have to look after yourself, and that’s all. Except now he has to look after his brother. He has to put his life on the line and probably help the cause because he doesn’t want his brother to go to prison or worse. We come to understand all of this through his conversations with Annabel and how often he puts himself in harm’s way to find his brother.
It is a perfect mix of action, tense thrills, and small, character-driven moments. This is a great film, and Radiance Films has given us a great release. They’ve given it a very nice looking 4K restoration and loaded it with extras. Those include the following:
- 4K Restoration by Eclaire Classics supervised by Mocky Delicious Products
- 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Archival interview with screenwriter and star Jean-Pierre Mocky (2018, 12 mins)
- Interview with actor Anne Deleuze (2022, 16 mins)
- Interview with Jean-Pierre Mocky’s assistant and friend Eric Le Roy (2022)
- Trailer
- Optional English subtitles
- Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring archival interviews with Mocky
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
