Spine 106: Coup de Torchon

Bertrand Tavernier's noirish Coup de Torchon transports Jim Thompson's 1964 novel Pop. 1280 from racist rural Texas to racist French West Africa. It works out. The story of an ineffectual local sheriff who decides to use his public image for private evil, Coup de Torchon is probably the jauntiest, brightest, jazziest nihilism we've ever experienced here at Lost in Criterion.