A splash of something fulfilling, moving, romantic, heartbreaking. Robert Enrico is one of the unsung masters of film. His movies are not destined for a Godardian audience but not even the purist film scholar can be indifferent to this. Alain Delon is at his most natural and human. That on its own it's just gorgeous. Lino Ventura is sublime as the older friend who needs the other but at the same time gives him all the freedom in the world because, as it happens with true friends, he want what's best for the other. The entrance of Joanna Shimkus into their lives is totally intoxicating. She doesn't enter to interfere in Delon and Ventura's friendship but to reinforce it. How beautiful! She's perfect. This film deserves a new life. I know it's difficult to find but it's well worth the effort.

On my last trip to Germany, I was amazed to pick up the brand new Blu-ray release of a favourite film of mine, Robert Enrico's 1967 film Les Aventuriers (original English release title The Last Adventure). Whenever I'm asked which I think is the most underrated, most unjustly forgotten about film, my answer is Les Aventuriers. To my knowledge the film has only been available on DVD in France without any subtitles. This is a film I've been desperate to see again since I caught it several times on TV in my childhood. Last night I finally watched the film again and it still lived up to my memories. Before I continue I have to say that like so many German releases, this only has optional German subtitles (German title Die Abenteurer) , so the release is only suitable for French and German speakers. Hopefully as there now is an excellent HD transfer available, this means that the film will get released in other countries. Still, I want to write a little bit about the film, because it was the first film I saw that made a huge impression on me. As the title hints at, this is (at least in part) an adventure film headlining stars Alain Delon and Lino Ventura. Apparently the reason why this film has been forgotten about is because it had nothing to do with the French New Wave which made headlines around the world in the 60s, being a classically made genre film. That said, its central romantic triangle and shifts of plot, tone and genres would have been perfectly at home in a Nouvelle Vague film. At the heart of the Les Aventuriers is the engaging interplay between its three leads; Delon, Ventura and the beautiful, likable Joanna Shimkus, who had a promising, if all too brief career in the 60s and early 70s (since her retirement, she's mainly been known as Mrs Sidney Poitier). The films next asset is a plot that constantly turns unexpected corners. There are shifts of tone which the film navigates brilliantly, as it moves from lighthearted comedy, to globe trotting adventure, towards a melancholy last act that pulls the rug from under ones feet. Two thirds into the story, what has been a light hearted comedy adventure so far turns unexpectedly dark and serious, heading towards a downbeat, heartbreaking ending. But then that's exactly the reason why the film has stayed with me and has haunted me ever since. As to the premise, Shimkus plays a young sculptress who sets up her studio in Ventura's drag racing garage after meeting him collecting scrap metal for her art pieces. Ventura's best friend is Delon, a stunt pilot. Though only subtly hinted at, it becomes clear that both men are attracted to the girl, but neither makes a move out of respect for the other. The girl also is sensitive to the men's friendship, so they have an unspoken agreement for their relationships remain platonic. By not going down the expected romantic route, the film becomes a touching portrait of an equal three way friendship. Instead of jealousies that would have ensued had the girl hooked up with one of the guys, the three friends look out for, care for and support each other. To not become a conventional love story is unexpected for a film that throws France's most handsome male movie star and a beautiful girl into the mix. And that's just the first of many unexpected turns the film has up its sleeve. When each of the friends suffers a major setback in their individual ventures, they decide to travel to the Congo, where they have found out is a treasure in a sunken plane, due to Delon's dealings with shady business people. There the adventure begins and the film becomes increasingly more unpredictable as our three heroes move into dangerous territory. Two more aspects that really enhance the film are the beautiful widescreen cinematography by Jean Boffety, as the film moves from a grey suburban Paris, to a sun drenched Africa, to a bleak Southern France. The use of locations is fantastic, with France being far from the glamorous place of Hollywood films, but grey and dismal, in stark contrast to the sun drenched, colourful African scenes. The tremendously stylish score by François de Roubaix is another major asset, with a memorable, whistled theme tune. Hopefully the fact that the film has been released on Blu in one country will mean that it will become available in other territories. A cult film in Germany, France and Japan, this film is deserving a re-discovery in this country too.

This unusual, genre-defying, big-hearted movie is in the true sense of the word a hidden gem. It's actually amazing that though it's so different to Jacques Rivette's Céline and Julie Vont en Bateau, the themes closest to its beating heart are also the celebration of true, disinterested friendship and an aching desire to recapture the pure, unadulterated joy of embarking on childhood adventures also in adulthood. Humankind most definitely needs to reclaim some of its lost internal childhood. Honest, wide-eyed and uncynical, yet wise movies such as these really remind us of this.Roland (Lino Ventura, not traditionally handsome but truly captivating) and Manu (Alain Delon at his most heart-meltingly gorgeous) are in a very vague sense the male equivalents of Céline and Julie. Both have a taste for ingenious mechanical feats and inventions they concoct in Roland's wonderful workshop, a metal scrapyard which is also a sort of haven from an outside world without imagination. Virginia Woolf once wrote that the problem most women have is the fact they don't have a room of their own, meaning a safe haven in which to create, let their imagination run free, and find themselves - I would extend this to humankind, which lacks not just a physical haven, but also an internal one. Roland's scrapyard here is a literal materialisation of one such haven, and the true mark of friendship is when its owner allows his friends to share it with him.One day, the adorable Laetitia (Joanna Shimkus, Sidney Poitier's wife) comes looking for pieces of scrap metal - old cars parts, airplane propeller blades, etc. - wishing to buy them off Roland to use them for her metal sculptures. He's initially rather dismissive, almost offended at the notion that the metal scraps in his personal playground should be for sale. However, he very soon warms to her sweetness and genuineness. It's through him that she very soon also meets his best friend Manu, a daring pilot and true child at heart, a perfect complement to Roland. Good God, what delightful eyecandy that young Delon was! Especially in the scenes at sea in Congo, when he has his shirt off most of the time and is all toned, tanned, with tousled, floppy hair and long stubble... :-)From that moment on, this wonderful trio becomes inseparable. The scenes in which we are shown the growth of their beautiful bond, their carefree spirit, their unbridled inventiveness and imagination, their perfect tenderness (especially flowing from the two men to the girl), and disinterested concern for one another, are simply life-affirming.But there are forces at work to try and destroy this beauty. These forces are embodied by the characters who are responsible for having Manu lose his pilot's license when he tries to do a daring stunt with his delightful retro bi-plane (flying through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris), the art critics who give Laetitia extremely negative reviews at her exhibition, and the men who subsequently pursue our three heroes in ways that I won't give away. These are all grown ups who have lost their grasp of the child-like spirit of friendship and adventure, pursuing three who haven't.On the other hand, you really get a sense that the crazy treasure hunt that Roland, Manu and Laetitia embark on in the ocean off the coast of Congo is done mostly for its own sake, and not solely for financial gain. The bond between the three soon inevitably develops a physical and emotional tension, with Laetitia not quite exchanging the feeling for the one friend who loves her, and instead feeling drawn to the other, who doesn't feel attracted to her in equal measure. Unfortunately though, these burgeoning feelings between the three never have the time to develop into a proper triangle, as disaster soon strikes, to heart-breaking effect.******** SPOILERS WARNING: As other reviewers on the IMDb page has also mentioned, Laetitia's burial at sea is one of the most poignant moments I remember seeing in a movie for a long time. Yet it is also extraordinarily restrained and never sentimental, though deeply moving. I was impressed at how Les Aventuriers manages not to lose steam, nor the viewer's interest in the storyline once the angelic Laetitia is no longer there - she is almost the movie's soul, so it's no mean feat on Enrico's part that actually, we become even more morbidly attached to and concerned for Roland and Manu's well-being once she is dead. Seeking out Laetitia's only surviving family members to give them the dead girl's few possessions and her share of the treasure, the two friends travel to the French coastal village where she grew up. There's a poignant moment when an old local shepherd and his wife, who knew Laetitia as a child, reply to Manu and Roland's offer of a reward by saying that they are happy as they are and couldn't wish for anything more in life. A scene that's so simple, so beautiful, and miraculously lacking in rhetoric.Other favourite scenes and characters include the visit that Roland and Manu pay to the dusty, semi-deserted African museum in Laetitia's village. Curated by a boy no older than eight or nine, who guides the two men around the exhibits with genuine passion and a desire to impress them with his eagerness and expertise, it was the first scene after Laetitia's death to bring a big smile back to my face. This museum was this child's haven, the equivalent of Roland's metal scrap-yard. Likewise, the fortress in the middle of the sea, a place so archetypically symbolic of a psychological state as well as a real, physical place, would have been Laetitia's haven, the one she would have shared with those she loved. Her two true friends go there to honour it and her, but unfortunately, yet more tragic happenings are not far behind them...

This movie is indeed one of the best I have ever seen. It's magic doesn't let you loose until the last picture fades away and still you think "OH - NO!" please don't let that be the end ... Lino Ventura and Alain Delon are the perfect match for this cast! From the sixties though, but as one says, "they don't make such movies any more". Although the movie tells one of those "boy meets girl", "another boy joins them" stories, this one is different. Everything circles around her and it's getting faster and faster. They're goofing around and having lots of fun, the best time of their lives. But when they lose her, their precious toy is gone, which drags them down. That the story has a very sad ending, where our 'hero' loses everything, is obvious, must be obvious from the beginning, still it is very hard to admit - at the end. This movie is a must-see.