''The Ruffian'' () is a 1983 French-Canadian

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

written and directed by

José Giovanni José Giovanni (22 June 1923, Paris, France – 24 April 2004, Lausanne, Switzerland) was the pseudonym of Joseph Damiani, a French writer and film-maker of Corsican origin who became a naturalized Swiss citizen in 1986. A former collaborationi ...

and starring

Lino Ventura Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura (14 July 1919 – 22 October 1987), known as Lino Ventura, was an Italian-born actor and philanthropist, who lived and worked for most of his life in France. He was considered one of the greatest leading men ...

Bernard Giraudeau Bernard René Giraudeau (18 June 1947 – 17 July 2010) was a French sailor, actor, film director, scriptwriter, producer and writer. Early life He was born on 18 June 1947 in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime. In 1963 he enlisted in the French na ...

and

Claudia Cardinale Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938), known as Claudia Cardinale (), is an Italian actress. Born and raised in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition ...

.''

Le Nouvel Observateur (), previously known as (2014–2024), (1964–2014), (1954–1964), (1953–1954), and (1950–1953), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, ' is one of the three most prominent French news magazines ...

''. Issues 947-964; Volume 947. It is based on Giovanni's 1969 novel ''Les Ruffian''.

Plot

The film follows Aldo, an adventurer who works at a

gold mine Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to more comple ...

in Canada. The mine is attacked by bandits, who kill everyone except Aldo and two

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

people. They seek revenge by killing the bandits and stealing back their gold. Having suspicion of the two First Nations people, Aldo then proceeds to run off without them, but then loses the gold in a river. He drives to his home

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

to recruit his friends John and Gérard, and his wife Éléonore, to help him retrieve the gold from the river. Meanwhile, the two First Nations people whom Aldo betrayed seek to recover the gold as well.

Cast

as Aldo Sévenac *

as Gérard Jackson *

as Catherine Hansen * Pierre Frag as John * Béatrix Van Til as Éléonore *

August Schellenberg August Werner Schellenberg (July 25, 1936 – August 15, 2013) was a Canadian actor. He played Randolph in the first three installments of the ''Free Willy'' film series (1993–1997) as well as characters in '' Black Robe'' (1991), '' The New Wo ...

as Nelson Harting

References

External links

* 1980s adventure films 1983 crime drama films French adventure films French crime drama films Canadian adventure films Canadian crime drama films Films based on works by José Giovanni Films directed by José Giovanni Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films with screenplays by José Giovanni Films about treasure hunting French-language Canadian films 1980s Canadian films 1980s French films {{1980s-France-film-stub