User Reviews

If you thought Speilberg was clever for creating Indiana Jones, you should check out this movie and see where the idea came from. With too many parallels to be coincidence, this film is another example of how Hollywood steals from European films and no one in the U.S. knows any better because they never leave their backyard. Oh, and it has really cool low budget action scenes; particularly a pursuit through a construction site that is about as glamorous as getting chased by two Brazilian thugs can be.

Jean-Paul Belmondo died recently,* so I decided to watch one of his most famous movies. What an experience! "L'homme de Rio" ("That Man from Rio" in English) has just about everything! Obviously, the movie borrowed a lot of stuff from Tintin books, but isn't all art borrowed from something or other? Philippe de Broca's Academy Award-nominated movie is a great romp from start to finish. I suspect that, had Françoise Dorléac not died a car wreck at the age of twenty-five, she would've gone on to become just as great an actress as her younger sister (Catherine Deneuve).

Anyway, a fun movie with some great shots of Rio de Janeiro. And is that soundtrack to die for or what?

*As it happened, Belmondo died right after I saw his movie "Leon Morin, Priest".

I was a bit flummoxed by the references to 'That Man From Rio' as a "James Bond parody", expecting it to be something like Dean Martin's Matt Helm movies or James Coburn as Flint. It's NOTHING like that. It's actually closer to some of Hitchcock's "average guy"-caught-in-a-web-of-intrigue pictures like 'The 39 Steps' or 'North By Northwest'. Anyway, however you label it it's a really entertaining romantic adventure movie that most people should enjoy. Two things really help it - the locales and the cast. Jean-Paul Belmondo ('Breathless') is one of the coolest and most charismatic leading men to ever stand in front of a movie camera, and he really makes this movie worth watching. It also doesn't hurt that the supporting cast includes the beautiful Francoise Dorleac (Polanski's 'Cul-de-sac') and 'Rififi's Jean Servais. I can't argue that this is anything but pure entertainment, but for what it is it is difficult to beat, and if you just want to have some fun then 'That Man From Rio' is highly recommended.

An amusing film that has parachutes, alligators , women , killers and many more things .Look what they call a quiet in Brazil ! . An hectic action , spoof comedy which was a big hit at the boxoffice . It was one of the first and one of the best spoofs of the James Bond and Euro-spy films . It deals with a young soldier, discharged for a week , Jean Paul Belmondo with a temporary permission , who is pitched from crisis to crisis , as he sets out in pursuit of the thieves who kidnapped his sweetheart , Francoise Dorleac , Catherine Deneuve's sister, and they previously robbed a valuable figure at the Paris museum . When she is captured , he sacrifices his life to rescue her , all before his week break ends . So of course Jean Paul does some international adventuring in order to save her , as he must travel Rio, Brasilia and the Amazon heartland . Meantime , there is also kidnapped a famed professor , Jean Servais . As Belmondo faces off a suspicious enemy , Adolfo Celi , and his cohorts. Then , dangerous happenings ensue and things go awry .

A fun as well as extravangant adventure full of action , farce , tongue in cheek , and a lot of thrills . A successful French film that was 4th highest grossing film of the year 1964 . Sympathetic acting by the adventurous Jean Paul Belmondo as a soldier who comes to rescue his lover who has just been abducted and coercily brought to Rio Janeiro , that's why her father led an expedition and the kidnappers think she knows how to find a treasure . Belmondo is finely accompanied by the gorgeous Francoise Dorleac -who unfortunately , a bit later on , she died by car accident- , along with two notorious secondaries , Jean Servais and Adolfo Celi. It was heavily influenced by the comic books , by the famous Belgian cartoonist Herge ; in fact , there are certain visuals and images as the museum robbing and the Amazon sculptures that are all clearly inspired by Georges Remi's work .

It contains an agreeable and atmospheric musical score by the prestigious Georges Deleure , as well as an evocative cinematography , shot in Brazil locations as Rio De Janeiro , Amazons and Brasilia with its monumental buildings , newly built by Le Corbusier . This engaging adventure spoof well produced by Alexander Mnouchkine and was professionally directed by Philippe DeBroca , though , nowadays , it results to be some dated . He directed some good films , most of them comedies , action and adventures , such as Cartouche , The king of hearts , Oldest profession , Le Cavaleur , Jupiter's thigh , The green house , Louisiana . And his fetish actor was Jean Paul Belmondo . His best film was "Le Magnifique" about a novelist , Belmondo , who mixes fantasy with reality when he chases women, Jacqueline Bisset , and solves cases.

This movie is pure 1960 French action comedy. Kidnap the girl, chase the villains, go far away to exotic places, find buried treasure following clues and artifacts, Campy but fun.

For a good part of this one, I felt it was a light, playful, and comedic version of a James Bond film, as the protagonist (Jean-Paul Belmondo) finds himself sucked into a series of dangerous escapades pursuing some guys who've kidnapped his girlfriend (Françoise Dorléac) and taken her to Rio de Janeiro. They've done that because she knows something about one of three ancient sculptures plundered from an archaeological site and divvied up by her father, a professor, and a Brazilian aristocrat. The sculptures hold some secret, and the chase is on after one is stolen from a Parisian museum. At a stretch, you could say the film even has a little French nod to Hitchcock, as our hero finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, with guys trying to kill him - for example, in a dirt lot with cars bearing down on him from multiple directions, which reminded me a little of Cary Grant in the biplane scene of North by Northwest.

However, there's never any real tension, nor is there any intended - just zany fun, without regard to how silly or improbable some aspects of the story are. The film is going for pure entertainment, blending comedy, romance, and action, with stunts and some beautiful on-location footage in Brazil on top of it all. I loved the scenes with the young shoeshine boy with the cool house (even if it is odd that he drinks whiskey lol), and the dancing Dorléac does with a group of Brazilians. I would have liked it more had some of the silliness been dialed down a little, but I suppose that's part of the charm, and it was entertaining. The ending sequence is also very strong, and clearly referenced in the Indiana Jones films.

Some of my fondest of memories as a child was sitting in the library and immersing myself into the Ligne Claire reality of George Remi's "The Adventures Of Tintin". They had such a timeless quality and vision about them, just like the period in which they were set. The colors were so vibrant and illustrations were clearly defined. Herge's Illustrations themselves defined a new standard of a comic 'universal language' that spoke more words than any bubble text that was added on. You knew who the bad guys, the good guys and the stereotypes were. You knew when characters were nervous, angry, happy, confident, stupid, clumsy and surprised. You even knew when they were sweating! The attention to emotion and narration was brilliant. While reading his albums (24 in total) I felt like I was in a movie. The characters were all strange, mysterious, suspicious and one dimensional except for the protagonist (Tintin) and the world was as simple as black and white/good and evil. The stories were always bizarre but world weary and highly adventurous at the same time. I couldn't stop reading them. Not once was I aware I was reading a comic book. The pace builds momentum and doesn't stop. Herge's greatest gift was his ability to effortlessly make a transition in mood and tone. His illustrations evoke shades of Film-Noir when they're serious, 'Charlie Chaplin' absurdity when they're comical and a 'Sherlock Holmes/Arsene Lupin' mystery inspired approach in their narrative. It is the combination of these three key genres that made Tintin and all the films, books and comics it inspired so special. One of the earliest of these was perhaps the greatest of these, "L'Homme de Rio" ("That Man From Rio"), a Jean Paul Belmondo vehicle hugely influenced by Herge's "The Broken Ear" with subtle footnotes to "The Calculus Affair", "The Seven Crystal Balls" and "The Secret Of The Unicorn".

When I came upon "That Man From Rio", I was searching the world over for adventure films. Actually, my obsession all began with Indiana Jones. I wanted to find films that inspired the trilogy. I knew that Indy was a homage – a kudos to all the adventure serials, film-noirs, pulp fiction novels and adventure comics of the 1930s, 40s and 50s (one of them was obviously Tintin). I came upon many. It is said that "The Secret Of The Incas" starring Charlton Heston was Indy's blueprint, but although the film did possess all that which inspired the look and character of Indy, it didn't quite inspire the feel and ambiance of it. Indiana Jones had that vintage high adventure atmosphere to it that I instantly recognized in Herge's bibliography – the same charm, comedy, mystery, suspense, pace and thirst for adventure. These were all qualities that ignited the child in all of us. But surely, due to Tintin's international acclaim and success (a franchise that sold over 200 million copies and translated into 60 languages) there must have been at least one film that captured it's narrative style between its very conception in the late 30s and the creation of Indiana Jones in the 80s. For 50 years in between there must have been somebody who loved Tintin as much as I and decided to do something about it. I came to the harrowing conclusion that nobody in America, up until the likes of Steven Spielberg had ever made a movie in the footsteps of Herge. Either it didn't reach a wide enough audience in America or Hollywood was too embroiled in the Cold War to be concerned with a good old fashioned adventure. So I looked to France and Belgium, where for almost 70 years (and at least 4 generations) later Tintin has stood the test of time and is as popular, inspiring and loved TODAY as it ever was. I was reminded of something I always knew – that the French have always been the romantics and the lovers of adventure and mystery. The novels by Jules Verne, Maurice Leblanc and Alexander Dumas, The diaries, documentaries and books by marine explorer Jacques Costeau, The suspense master works of Henri Georges Clouzot AND The enduring comic book creations of E.P. Jacobs, Albert Uderzo and Herge have fascinated generations of nations all around the world to this very day. It is in this way that I found out about this beautiful film called "That Man From Rio". I don't want to even spoil an action scene let alone a plot point, because everything about this film is kinetic energy. It never stops. The action is larger than life. The story is larger than life. The romance is every man's fantasy. To even whisper it's similarity to Tintin would be blasphemous, but you will recognize them as the film takes you for a ride and it will put a smile on your face. 'Jean Paul Belmondo' is and was (especially in his prime) France's most enduring and popular actor and it doesn't surprise me why. His ability for comedy and action has inspired actors such as Jackie Chan in their careers. He's always jumping, running, falling, riding, racing, shooting, punching, kicking, yelling, laughing and clinging for his life and no film better utilizes his gift than this one. The scenario he is put in will remind you of Hitchcock's North By Northwest as he travels the world in pursuit of a girl he loves dearly. From start to finish you are on a roller-coaster, hearing the sounds and seeing the sights. It's fantastic and truly a perfectly crafted vintage adventure film. If there was a mediator between Herge's Tintin and Spielberg's Indiana Jones, look no further than Philippe de Broca's "That Man From Rio". Its fluid ability to manipulate its audience with suspense, drama, comedy and action is brilliant. You will never see anything coming! If you are similar to me in that you love your adventure film, find this film right now and watch it.

Private Dufourquet (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is getting ready for a week's leave from the military. Little does he know that instead of enjoying a week of relaxation (or romance) he'll be sucked into a conspiracy that involves theft, murder and kidnapping! This is because when he visits his girlfriend, he sees her being kidnapped and he gives chase....all the way to Rio! And, once there...he's a bit lost and no one seems to believe him when he tells them about the kidnapping. What's next for our reluctant hero...and what does this have to do with three ancient statues?

"That Man From Rio"is enjoyable mindless entertainment. There are lots of interesting sites and tons of action..as well as a story that was mostly enjoyable...somewhat like a James Bond film. I say mostly because I found the kidnapped woman very annoying and rather stupid at times....her role just wasn't well written. It's also very funny that despite all their crazy adventures, their clothes (particularly her dress) looks great....like it had just been cleaned and pressed! The film also, at times, seems overly long. Still, overall, the good outweighs the bad...and the film is worth your time.

I'm glad I finally searched for this movie here at IMDb. I have only seen this movie twice on TV, and that was a long time ago, but it's unforgettable. Can you buy it at any of the big retail chains? Every week older movies are restored and reissued on DVD, so hopefully this one has or will be in the future. I will be very glad when I own a copy.

If my memory serves me right, this movie had everything: foot chases, car chases, shootouts, locations around the world, a beautiful sidekick, airplane sequences, parachuting into the jungle, a massive bar fight, stolen relics leading to a mystery cave, crazy stunts and all very entertaining and fun to watch.

We enjoyed the first half, especially the two lead actors. However, the movie became an endless chase, which became tedious. I recommend this film if you want to see where Spielberg stole ideas for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Another movie obviously borrowing from this one is Romancing the Stone. The first half of this movie is worth watching, just be ready to speed-watch the later chase scenes.

While I love Belmondo in general, here a very young species comes across as a rather flat and not-so-amusing type, being forced into un unbelievable race-course at finally ending with their friends having the upper hand despite their shortcomings

.

Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in this French adventure-lite, something about a military officer on leave who becomes involved in a kidnapping plot after a professor and his assistant are hypnotized and snatched by nefarious underworld types. The farcial yet dryly disengaged tone and the dewy photography has lead some to label this an avant-garde comedy. Actually, it's a rambling, repetitive genre-effort, very much of its time and curiously bland. There's a predictable romantic interlude involving Françoise Dorléac and a pretty but narcotizing Brazilian score from Georges Delerue, but the rest is slight stuff indeed. Very lax on the jokes and the sight-gags, though this may be wholly intentional. *1/2 from ****

In the early sixties,De Broca was to film "Tintin" .It's really too bad he could not get his wish ,cause the two Tintin which were filmed after he quit were disappointing .

But when he began "L'Homme De Rio" ,De Broca had not forgotten Tintin : the beginning of his screenplay and Hergé's "L'Oreille Cassée" (the broken ear) are stupendously similar : an Amazionan statuette is stolen from a museum .And in the two stories,there are TWO statuettes.The reporter has become a private on furlough (Belmondo) and Milou his gorgeous fiancée (the late Françoise Dorléac).The movie is some kind of comic strip and is enjoyable from start to finish .After "Cartouche" and this movie ,Philippe De Broca would be a name to reckon with.

An entertaining adventure comedy for the first hour and a dragging spoof for the second hour. It has a crazy sense of humour and a filmmaking style that wants so much to happen onscreen, although it doesn't care about having good writing. Cinematography must be one of the best aspects of this movie that does so many clever things which help us get involved in the action more and forget about the flaws.

I've only seen a few French films from the 60s and from what I read this isn't part of the French New Wave. So, are all the French filmmakers of the 60s perverted and misogynistic with a twisted sense of humour?

Jean-Paul Belmondo runs a lot in this movie, enough to cover all the running Tom Cruise does in all the Mission Impossible films. That got to be one of the saving graces of this movie though. Even though I say a lot of negatives, I can't deny a lot of the technical feats this movie pulled. And that ending, deconstructing treasure hunt movies that many years ago, makes it a pretty good movie despite all of its sometimes frustrating flaws.

After a French woman (Françoise Dorléac.) is kidnapped due to her knowledge of a valuable tribal statue, her beau on leave from the military (Jean-Paul Belmondo) relentlessly pursues her from Paris to Rio de Janeiro to Brasília to the Amazon River and the deep jungles nearby. Jean Servais plays a Parisian professor while Adolfo Celi is on hand as a wealthy industrialist in Brasília.

A French-Italian production with subtitles, "That Man from Rio" (1964) is an amusing globetrotting adventure inspired by the Franco-Belgian comics The Adventures of Tintin and intended to be a semi-spoof of flicks like "North by Northwest" (1959), the first two James Bond movies (1962-63) and "Secret of the Incas" (1954). Imagine "North by Northwest" mixed with the fun tone of an Elvis flick minus the songs and you'd have a good idea of this flick.

The scenic globetrotting makes the film, especially the scenes in Brasília, the planned capital city of Brazil with its modernist architecture, which was still under construction when this was shot. Another highlight is the constant entertaining chase sequences.

It influenced the tone of the 70s & early 80's Bond movies, which added amusing touches to 007's globetrotting escapades. It also influenced Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). While entertaining enough, the characters are mostly shallow and uninteresting. Any of the Roger Moore Bond movies is all-around more compelling and rewarding. But this came first and deserves credit.

The film runs 1 hours, 50 minutes, and was shot on location in the places cited above.

GRADE: B/B-

This movie is full of action and the actors are quite interesting, but the ideas and scenes are too repetitive, with a rather simple plot, and an ending that has been seen too many times and ends up in boredom...

This is pretty much the romp it set out to be and it has some good set pieces. But it doesn't even bother trying to be believable for much of it and there are some long, loose stretches which don't live up to the taut adventure promised. Belmondo is not really an action star, even if he faked one in the carefully choreographed 'Cartouche' and his best physical bits here are more comic than combative. The film is also careless about tone, since harmless encounters alternate with actual killings in a disconcerting way. There are some nice views of Paris and even better views of Brazil (including a long stretch of the hyper-futuristic Brazilia). At times you can see where "Indiana Jones" might have been inspired by, but greatly improved on, it. It may have been high budget for its time, but it feels somewhat low budget today. It doesn't help too that some of the more compelling minor characters are casually jettisoned along the way.

Not really a spoof of Bond, but more of a smarter, quicker, hand-held adventure film, with the hand-held camera technique adding to the charm, speed and precarious feel of all the situations. Beautiful and offbeat locations are used ingeniously in Paris, Rio, and Amazon areas. It is definitely the source of "Indiana Jones" material, but this movie is much cooler. The pace is extremely fast, with a plot twist placed right where it is needed.

I noticed that some viewers didn't give That Man From Rio a "10" rating. Well, there's no accounting for taste. You would have to be clinically depressed not to give this movie the highest rating. Of course, TMFR uses raucous, flamboyant, genuine, heart-thumping stunts by real actors, rather than the always-phony-looking-computer-generated special effects of today's movies. And it has a real plot, so it doesn't need the "F-word" or gratuitous nudity and sex to arouse one's interest. It has a magical innocence and imaginative style, so that you would be comfortable watching this movie with youngsters or your grandmother -- it is enjoyable for all ages. That alone probably accounts for the aforementioned low scores. But TMFR received unanimously rave reviews, and ran "forever," when it was released a. 1964 (a rare thing for a foreign film in the US) and it still stands up today to comparison with any other movie of its genre. I don't think a better road-adventure movie has ever been made and I have been going to movies since about 1945. Certainly no one makes movies of this calibre today. TMFR has everything: it's fresh, exciting, romantic, bright, and original. It's beautifully produced, directed, scored, and photographed. If I lived to be 100 I could not find one negative or "hedging" thing to say about it. It has an exceptionally attractive and able cast -- including the people of Brazil -- and takes viewers on a whirlwind adventure the likes of which will never be seen again because this movie was filmed just at the moment Brazil was becoming "modern." Its natural beauty and energy were not yet spoiled with polluted beaches and tourist-spewing jets. Everything was shot on location -- it's the real thing -- from the streets and museums of sophisticated Paris to the lush, exotic locales of Brazil and back again to Paris. The kaleidoscopic roller coaster of adventure in Brazil takes you from the hotels, beaches, and slums of Rio (which provide the setting for one of the movie's most enchanting interludes), to the emerging capital city of Brasilia (the city was being built on cleared land at the time this movie was filmed, which DeBroca makes brilliant use of). Then there's a surrealistic road trip along a scenic coastal highway (the Pan American?) and a rough-and-tumble trip down the expansive Amazon on a gambling riverboat, replete with wicked women and river-rat outlaws. Not to mention a mad scramble through the jungle-rain forest. TMFR stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a "rakish-but-decent" young soldier on leave who is hopelessly in love with the beautiful red-haired sister of Catherine Deneuve and the dark and dashing Adolfo Celi. The music is melodic and intoxicating. Just writing this makes we want to see TMFR again and I plan to this weekend. I guarantee you too will fall in love with That Man From Rio.

This movie is sophisticated colorful European and fun in style. The action grabs you right away and takes you on a fantastic roller coaster ride in some of the most seductive looking cities ever filmed, Rio and Brasilia. Belmondo is supposed to be on a weekend pass and goes AWOL to save his girl who is kidnapped (from Orly Airport in Paris) and dragged to Brazil where she becomes entangled with thieves and stolen Incan statues. It's no wonder that DeBroca's 1967 "King of Hearts" is many people's favorite film of all time. Jean Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorleac are most engaging and attractive performers. Sadly she died not long after this film was released.

I watched this film, only by chance, because I got home early one day after a morning exam. Anyway,watching the film was the best thing I did all day. I don't watch a lot of foreign films as such, but this was great. It was funny and Belmond's acting was top notch. I found him hilarious. Although I watched it with subtitles, it didn't feel tiresome at all. I have a little bit of understanding of Fench, but not enough to keep my self from looking at the captions. Its a great watch and anyone who values good entertainment (and I don't mean the sort of pretentious art-house crap that I enjoy), but really good natured, sincere story-line and great filming. Its so well done that it barely feels tacky or over-worked. It doesn't even seem like a 60's film. The stunts were some of the best and realistic ones I have seen in a film, to date. All the Hollywood junk feels so artificial and contrived compared to That man from Rio. I would watch this, over going to the movies to watch the latest Mission Impossible or Harry Potter, any day.