The Professional
Never leave vengeance to amateurs.
Country
Production
Budget
$500 000
Revenue
$0
Director
Actors
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Robert Hossein, Elisabeth Margoni, Jean-Louis Richard, Jean Desailly, Michel Beaune, Cyrielle Clair, Pierre Vernier, Marie-Christine Descouard, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Alain Belmondo
Operator
Composer
Artist
Éric Moulard
Audition
Editing
Michelle David
All team (13)
All team (13)
Short description
French secret service agent Josselin Beaumont is dispatched to take down African warlord N'Jala. But when his assignment is canceled, he's shocked to learn that his government is surrendering him to local authorities. He is given a mock trial and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. But Beaumont escapes from prison and vows not only to avenge himself against his betrayers but also to finish his original assignment.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Patrick Alexander's novel *Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal* (1976).
- The final scene of the film was shot at the Château de la Ferrerie estate, near the town of Rambouillet.
- Filming took place from May 5th to July 13th, 1981.
- The rifle used by Jocelyn Beaumont in Africa is an Armalite AR-10.
- The cars involved in the chase scene: a Fiat-131 "Mirafiori" for the protagonist and a Peugeot-504 for the special agents.
- In the film, the protagonist hangs his badge on the dead commissar. The badge bears the inscription “BEAUMONT Josselin 56-322-460”. The numbers can be deciphered as follows: 56 is the population density per km² of Côte d'Ivoire (literally “Ivory Coast”, the place of Josselin “Joss” Beaumont’s imprisonment) or its ranking in the list of countries by area at the time the film was released; 322,460 is the area of Côte d'Ivoire in km².
- In the film's finale, Jean-Paul Belmondo's character is killed right next to the helicopter waiting for him. Director Georges Lautner also filmed an alternative ending in which Belmondo's character boards the helicopter and flies away (as insisted upon by the producers), but with the actor's own consent, he ultimately kept the ending featuring the death of secret agent Jocelyn Beaumont during editing.
- The film is based on Patrick Alexander's novel 'Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal' (1976).
- Michel Audiard was chosen as the screenwriter. However, at that time he was already working on the script for the crime drama 'Under Investigation' (1981) directed by Claude Miller, so the first draft of 'The Professional' turned out to be unsuccessful. Francis Veber was invited to revise the script. Audiard was so indifferent that he even allowed his son, Jacques Audiard (a future director), to be credited as a screenwriter on the film. According to Veber, who was not even mentioned in the credits, Jacques Audiard primarily served as a mediator between Veber and his father and had almost no part in revising the script.
- In the film's finale, Jean-Paul Belmondo's character is killed right next to the helicopter waiting for him. Director Georges Lautner also filmed an alternative ending in which Belmondo's character boards the helicopter and flies away (as insisted upon by the producers). However, with the actor's own consent, the finale featuring the death of secret agent Jocelyn Beaumont was kept during editing.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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