General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Professional

The Professional (French: Le Professionnel) is a 1981 French action thriller directed by Georges Lautner, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as Josselin (Joss) Beaumont, a French secret-service agent sent to assassinate an African head of state, betrayed by his own government when the political climate changes, and imprisoned for two years before escaping to complete his contract in Paris.¹^•² The film is adapted from Patrick Alexander's novel Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal, published in French as Mort d'une bête à la peau fragile.³

Key fact	Detail
Director / writers	Georges Lautner; screenplay by Michel Audiard, Jacques Audiard, and Georges Lautner, with dialogue by Michel Audiard³
Source	Patrick Alexander's novel Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal (Mort d'une bête à la peau fragile)³^•⁴
Lead cast	Jean-Paul Belmondo (Joss Beaumont), Robert Hossein (Commissaire Rosen), Jean Desailly (the minister), Cyrielle Clair (Alice Ancelin), Sidiki Bakaba (President Njala)³
Music	Ennio Morricone, whose theme "Chi Mai" sold hundreds of thousands of records⁵
French release	21 October 1981 per the BnF, AlloCiné, and L'Officiel des spectacles; the CNC visa record and Première give 14 October 1981⁴^•⁶^•⁷
Box office	More than five million admissions in France, one of Belmondo's biggest hits⁸
Runtime	108 minutes in most listings; the CNC records 110 min and the Quebec classification board 109 min⁷^•⁶^•⁹

Spoilers

Plot

Joss Beaumont, a top French special-services agent, is dispatched to eliminate Njala, the colonel-president-for-life of an African state. The English-language synopsis names the country Malawi, while French sources render the fictional country as Malagawi or Malawy.²^•¹⁰ A counter-order arrives at the last minute: the target has become a friend of the French state. Instead of recalling their agent, senior officials denounce him to the local authorities, and Beaumont is arrested, tried, and sentenced to hard labor.²^•¹¹

Two years later Beaumont escapes from prison and returns to Paris. Through Colonel Martin he informs his former superiors that he will carry out his original contract during Njala's official visit to Paris, and that he also intends to settle scores with the intelligence service. The remainder of the film follows the manhunt led by Commissaire Rosen as Beaumont uses his spy skills to taunt his pursuers and evade capture.²^•¹²

Production and filming

The film was produced by Cerito Films and Les Films Ariane, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Belmondo among the producers of record.³^•⁹ AlloCiné lists a budget of 20,000,000 (francs).¹ Henri Decaë, the cinematographer of Bob le Flambeur, shot the film in color in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio.¹³

Locations. For economy, the opening scenes set in Africa were shot in May 1981 in the Camargue near Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and the closing sequence was filmed at the Château de Maintenon in Eure-et-Loir.⁵ Following the convention established since Le Casse (1971), the film includes a car chase staged by stunt coordinator Rémy Julienne, set at the Trocadéro; the sculptor Paul Belmondo, Jean-Paul's father and a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, helped the production obtain the necessary authorizations.⁵

Development. In 1981 the producer Alexandre Mnouchkine had to choose between mounting Le Professionnel or co-financing Barracuda, another Belmondo project inspired by the Claustre affair (the kidnapping of a Frenchwoman in Chad from 1974 to 1977) that Yves Boisset would have directed. Mnouchkine preferred Lautner's film.⁵ Michel Audiard concentrated almost exclusively on the lead actor's dialogue, leaving the adaptation work to his son Jacques.¹⁴

Music

Ennio Morricone composed the score, built around the theme "Chi mai", which the Festival Lumière program credits, together with the duel-like confrontation between Belmondo and Hossein, with giving the film the aspect of a modern western; hundreds of thousands of copies of the record were sold.³^•⁵ A contemporary magazine account describes the soundtrack as curiously melancholic for an action movie.¹⁵

Release and reception

The film received its CNC visa (number 54139) on 19 October 1981 with a "Tous publics" classification.⁶ French sources date the theatrical release to 21 October 1981, while the CNC record and Première give 14 October 1981.⁴^•⁶ In Quebec it was classified on 10 December 1981.⁹

Commercial performance. Le Professionnel drew more than five million admissions in France, part of a 1978–1983 run in which Belmondo's films dominated the French market; in 1982 L'As des as exceeded even its score.⁸ A scholarly account of French stardom describes it as one of Belmondo's biggest and last box-office hits, seen by over five million spectators.¹⁶

Critical standing. The film holds an IMDb rating of 7.4² and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer of 81% based on three reviews, with a 2026 review calling it "a little gem of an adventure thriller".¹⁷ The Festival Lumière program calls it a pleasing and funny film, though not innocent in its depiction of political maneuvering between France and Africa.³

Home video and availability

Studiocanal restored the film in 2018 with the support of the CNC, and it circulated theatrically in a restored DCP distributed by Tamasa.³^•¹⁴ Kino Lorber released a US Blu-ray in 2019 with French audio and English subtitles, including a 1981 television interview with Belmondo and an interview about Morricone's theme.¹⁸ Radiance Films issued a UK limited-edition Blu-ray on 18 May 2026, priced at £14.99, with a new interview on Belmondo's stardom by the film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a commentary by the film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson.¹²

As of late 2026, the film can be rented or bought on Amazon Video in the United States and streamed free on Kanopy, while it is not available on Dutch streaming services.²^•¹⁹ The US release carries an R rating; France classified it for all audiences.²^•⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Action thrillers, 1980s and 1990s

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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