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6.7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Courrier Sud remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old French cinema that smells like engine oil and unrequited longing, you'll probably dig this. If you need a movie where people actually talk about their problems instead of staring at horizons, stay away. It’s a bit of a relic, honestly.
There is this one shot of the plane against the clouds that feels like it lasts for ten years. It’s not boring, exactly. It’s just... heavy. You can tell the filmmakers were more interested in the feeling of being up there than in moving the story along.
Pierre Richard-Willm carries that weary pilot look like a second skin. He’s got these tired eyes that tell you he’s seen too much desert and not enough kindness. The romance with his cousin? It feels a bit tacked on, like the movie remembered it needed a heart halfway through the script.
The transition between the stuffy, velvet-draped rooms of France and the endless, flat orange of the colonies is jarring. It’s meant to be, I guess. One place feels like a cage, the other like a grave.
Watching this made me think about other movies from the era. It’s not quite as polished as something like The White Sister, but it has this weird, jagged honesty that I wasn't expecting. It doesn't try to be a masterpiece.
The desert scenes are where the movie actually breathes. The extras playing the rebels have this way of just appearing in the frame, silent and waiting. It makes the pilot look so small, which is obviously the point, but it's executed without that heavy-handed "look at how insignificant man is" nonsense.
Is it perfect? No. The editing feels like it was done with a pair of rusty garden shears in a few places. But there's a soul in there somewhere. It’s a movie that doesn't mind if you get bored for a minute. That’s a rare thing these days. ✈️