''Backfire'' (, , ) is a 1964 French crime film directed by Jean Becker, which stars

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward, frequently portraying police officer ...

and

Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress. She is considered an icon of the French New Wave as a result of her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless''. Seberg appeared in 34 films in ...

, reuniting for the first time since '' Breathless'' (1960).

Plot

A criminal organisation offers a Parisian man, David, $10,000 to transport a car across Europe. They tell him little about it except that drugs are not involved. He is accompanied by a photographer, Olga. David discovers he is smuggling gold. The two travel to Beirut then Damascus. They fall in love and David wants the gold for himself.

Cast

as David Ladislas *

as Olga Celan *

Enrico Maria Salerno Enrico Maria Salerno (18 September 1926 – 28 February 1994) was an Italian actor, voice actor and film director. He was also the voice of Clint Eastwood in the Italian version of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy films, and the voice of Chris ...

as Mario *

Gert Fröbe Karl Gerhart "Gert" Fröbe (; 25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988) was a German actor. He was known in English-speaking countries for his work as the title character in the James Bond film '' Goldfinger'', as Peachum in ''The Threepenny Opera ...

as Fehrman *

Renate Ewert Renate Ewert (9 November 1933 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany - now Kaliningrad, Russia – 4 December 1966, Munich, West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its format ...

as Comtesse *

Jean-Pierre Marielle Jean-Pierre Marielle (12 April 1932 – 24 April 2019) was a French actor. He appeared in more than a hundred films in which he played very diverse roles, from a banal citizen (''Les Galettes de Pont-Aven''), to a World War II hero (''Les Milles ...

as Van Houde * Diana Lorys as Rosetta *

Fernando Rey Fernando Casado Arambillet (20 September 1917 – 9 March 1994), best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and television actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States. A suave, international actor best known for hi ...

as the Lebanese policeman *

Wolfgang Preiss Wolfgang Preiss (27 February 1910 – 27 November 2002) was a German theatre, film and television actor. The son of a teacher, Preiss studied philosophy, German, and drama in the early 1930s. He also took private acting classes with Hans Schle ...

as Grenner *

Michel Beaune Michel Beaune (1933–1990) was a French actor. Filmography *1960: '' Trapped by Fear'' as Un ami de Paul (uncredited) *1961: ''Les godelureaux'' *1964: '' Backfire'' as Daniel *1970: '' The Confession'' as L'avocat *1970: '' The Time to Die ...

as Daniel *

Roberto Camardiel Roberto Camardiel Escudero (29 November 1917 – 15 June 1989) was a Spanish theatre director and actor. He appeared in ''Culpables'' and ''Bajo el cielo andaluz'' (1960), both directed by Arturo Ruiz-Castillo and starring Marifé de Triana. ...

as Stephanidès *

Fernando Sancho Fernando Sancho Les (7 January 1916 – 31 July 1990) was a Spanish actor. Biography He was born in Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain on 7 January 1916 and died at Hospital Militar Gómez Ulla in Madrid on 31 July 1990 from a liver failure during or ...

as Ylmaz *

Giacomo Furia Giacomo Matteo Furia (2 January 1925 – 5 June 2015) was an Italian film, television and stage actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1948 and 1998. Life and career Born in Arienzo, near Caserta, Furia started his acting care ...

as Nino

Production

The film was made by the same team who had produced ''

Banana Peel A banana peel, called banana skin in British English, is the outer covering of a banana. Banana peels are used as food for animals, an ingredient in cooking, in water purification, for manufacturing of several biochemical products as well as f ...

'' (1963). It was to have starred

Jean Louis Trintignant Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-war era. He starred in many classic fi ...

but he withdrew and was replaced by Belmondo. Filming took place from February 10 to April 7, 1964.

Costa-Gavras Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras (; born 12 February 1933), known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thril ...

was an assistant director.

Reception

The film was the 19th most popular movie at the French box office in 1964. In 2020 ''Fimink'' wrote "The film’s existence is ideal useless trivia to annoy people with now that the Jean Seberg biopic has come out."

References

External links

* *
''Backfire''
at Le Film Guide
''Backfire''
at Uni France
Review of film
at New York Times 1964 films 1964 crime films French crime films Films directed by Jean Becker Films set in West Germany Films set in Greece Films set in Italy Films set in Lebanon Films set in Spain Films shot in Almería 1960s French-language films 1960s French films French-language crime films {{1960s-France-film-stub