A clever adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel, with the plot being transposed to 1930's French West Africa. It depicts a corrupt and at times brutal society but despite the story being quite dark, (mostly bitter) humour is consistently present throughout the movie. Great acting all around.

Noire is fantastic in this.

To translate Coup de torchon's title into English here, it means giving something a wipe, so the idea of cleaning up... a town (of its evil doers), after one's own crimes, one's soul (well, that's as maybe), one's bottom (open-air latrines do feature)... but as the word "torchon" means "rag", it's not a deep clean. You're just wiping with something that's dirty in and of itself. Bertrand Tavernier sets his adaptation of the psychotic vigilante western Pop.1280 in pre-WWII French-colonized Africa, and casts sympathetic Philippe Noiret as an ineffectual and ambivalent law man in what is essentially a lawless, and atrociously racist, country. After many everyday humiliations, he finally snaps and starts bumping off the filth, his genius is how he covers up his crimes. At once a meditation of morality and a caustically funny satire (just look at the military officer, for example), Coup de torchon also provides a snapshot of French West Africa in the 30s as a greater commentary on colonialism and how evil can only beget evil. Still haven't completely wrapped my head around the film's bookends though.