L'As des as
L'As des as (English title The Ace of Aces) is a 1982 French-West German comedy-adventure film directed by Gérard Oury, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as Jo Cavalier, coach of the French boxing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, who protects a ten-year-old Jewish boy pursued by the Gestapo1. It was one of the biggest French box-office successes of its year and the second-highest-grossing film of Belmondo's career after Le Cerveau (1969)2.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Gérard Oury; screenplay and dialogue by Oury and Danièle Thompson3 |
| Cast | Jean-Paul Belmondo (Jo Cavalier), Marie-France Pisier (Gabrielle Belcourt), Rachid Ferrache (Simon Rosenblum), Frank Hoffmann (Gunther von Beckman)3 |
| Setting | Nazi Germany during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games1 |
| Production | Gaumont, Cerito Films, Soprofilms (Paris), Rialto Film Preben Philipsen GmbH & Co. KG (Berlin)3 |
| Music | Original score by Vladimir Cosma3 |
| French release | 27 October 19824 |
| French admissions | About 5.4 million, second of Belmondo's career after Le Cerveau2 |
Spoilers
Plot
In 1936, Jo Cavalier, a former First World War pilot turned boxing champion and coach of the French national team, travels to Berlin for the Olympic Games5. On the train he meets the journalist Gabrielle Belcourt, whom he courts without knowing that she hopes to interview Hitler, while he is fundamentally anti-Nazi6. Gabrielle entrusts him with the care of Simon Rosenblum, a ten-year-old Jewish boy whose family has been arrested by the Gestapo6. Jo and the boy, helped by the German general Gunther von Beckman, an opponent of the Nazi regime, attempt to free Simon's family, in a story mixing comedy, chases, and emotion1 • 6. After being dragged through the Germany of 1936, Jo escapes to Austria and ends up in Hitler's "eagle's nest"7.
Production
Oury wrote the film for Belmondo, whom he had not directed since Le Cerveau fourteen years earlier. According to Danièle Thompson's account published by the CNC, Belmondo shared Oury's passion for boxing and aviation and for large-scale popular films, and liked the idea of a fable about intolerance that ends with Hitler being knocked into a pond. He decided to co-produce the film alongside Alain Poiré and Gaumont and gave up his fee so that it could be shot5.
The Cinémathèque française credits Xaver Schwarzenberger as director of photography, Albert Jurgenson as editor, and Rolf Zehetbauer as production designer, with stunt coordination by Rémy Julienne, Claude Carliez, Jean Salis, and Jacques Dubourg3. Günter Meisner plays both Adolf Hitler and Angela Hitler3. The Cinémathèque and Gaumont list the running time as 110 minutes3 • 7, while the Larousse film dictionary gives 1 h 401.
Release and box office
The film opened in France on 27 October 19824. On the opening night, producer René Château brought the results to the team gathered at Fouquet's on the Champs-Élysées: 72,393 admissions in Paris alone, and Belmondo danced on the tables2. In Paris the film drew 1,223,205 admissions over the year, second only to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial8. CNC-based figures put the French total at 5,453,515 admissions9, which Le Monde rounds to 5.4 million and ranks as the second record of Belmondo's half-century career, after Le Cerveau2.
The 1982 critics' controversy
Critical writing about the film was quickly eclipsed by a public row about the state of French film culture. Dozens of critics signed a manifesto, published in L'Humanité, Télérama, and Libération, encouraging the public to see Jacques Demy's Une chambre en ville, released at the same time, and some of the same critics later took out advertising space in Le Monde to repeat the message10. The letter argued that Demy's film was suffering at the box office against that year's Belmondo Christmas blockbuster, and more broadly that French auteur film was being squeezed by big-budget popular films with large advertising budgets and very wide distribution; L'As des as was widely perceived as being on the popular side of that divide10.
References
- L'As des as, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films
- « L'As des as » contre « Une chambre en ville », Le Monde M le mag (2022)
- L'As des as (Gérard Oury, 1982), La Cinémathèque française
- L'As des as, JP Box-Office
- Gérard Oury en cinq films marquants, CNC
- L'As des As, Pathé Home
- The Ace of the Aces, Gaumont
- Les entrées à Paris 1982, JP Box-Office
- Box office de L'as des as en France (chiffres CNC)
- Mulligan, thesis on the 1982 critics' row, University of Warwick
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Satirical, black, and parody comedies of the 1980s
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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