Line #64 Film/InspectorBlunder


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inspectorblunder.jpg]]
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3	''Inspector Blunder'' (''Inspecteur la Bavure'') is a 1980 French crime comedy film directed by Creator/ClaudeZidi, starring Creator/{{Coluche}} and Creator/GerardDepardieu. Music/VladimirCosma composed the soundtrack.
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5	Michel Clément (Coluche), the son of a [[UsefulNotes/LesCopsSportif police]] hero, follows in his father's footsteps and becomes a police inspector. The thing is is, unlike his father, he's a bumbling idiot (and quite unlucky too). In spite of his blatant inaptitude, he is tasked with protecting a young journalist (Dominique Lavanant), who is the target of a dangerous criminal, Roger Morzini (Depardieu).
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7	!!''Inspector Blunder'' provides examples of:
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9	* TheFifties: The scene of the death of Michel's father is set in 1957. The cars look accordingly.
10	* TheEighties: The main part of the film is set in either 1980 (filmed that year) or in the late [[TheSeventies 1970s]]. The main indicator of this is the portrait of then-[[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfFrance French president]] from 1974 to 1981, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
11	* BadCopIncompetentCop: Michel Clément is a goofy and incompetent cop.
12	* BadassLongcoat: {{Parodied\|Trope}}. Michel's father wore one when he was shot. Michel's mother wants him to wear his father's longcoat (with the bullet holes) when he is appointed as a police inspector. Later, he wears a longcoat again to impress Marie-Anne Prossant when he arranges a meeting between her and Morzini.
13	* BasementDweller: Michel lives with his mother well into adulthood. [[MyBelovedSmother She's quite the smother too]].
14	* BigDamnHeroes: Michel comes to free Marie-Anne Prossant just when Morzini is going to cut one of her fingers.
15	* BreakTheHaughty: The very self-confident Morzini gets humiliated by Michel in the end.
16	* BullyingADragon: Marie-Anne Prossant taunts a dangerous criminal, Roger Morzini. On TV, she describes him as an unattractive person, a closet gay, and an impotent man.
17	* ButtMonkey: On his first day as a police inspector, Michel Clément gets beaten by his new colleagues who think he is an accomplice of Morzini. Later, he has to play the role of a girl in the reconstruction of a rape and he ends up in the mud. After the kidnapping of Marie-Anne Prossant, he gets beaten by his colleagues once again.
18	* CallBack: After Marie-Anne Prossant's kidnapping, Michel Clément is brutally questioned by Inspectors Zingo and Gaffuri, just as on his first day of work.
19	* CarSkiing: Performed by Michel Clément with a police van when he chases Morzini. It fails.
20	* ChekhovsGunman: The yobs who Michel is friends with are useful [[spoiler:when he needs to kidnap Morzini's mother.]]
21	* ClassicalAntiHero: Michel is mediocre, clumsy, cowardly, etc.
22	* ContrivedCoincidence:
23	** Michel Clément's destiny is linked with Roger Morzini's: he starts his career the day the gangster's accomplices are arrested. He is nearby when Morzini attacks a jewelry workshop. Then he must protect the young journalist that Morzini targets.
24	** Michel Clément investigates the theft of old pistols. Then he realizes his friends stole them as a gift for him.
25	* CountingBullets: PlayedForLaughs in the opening scene. Jules Clément is hit by all the bullets his colleagues are counting.
26	* CowboyCop: [[spoiler:Surprisingly, Michel becomes one in the last part of the film: he uses illegal means (like kidnapping the kidnapper's mother) to free Marie-Anne Prossant.]]
27	* DamselInDistress: Marie-Anne Prossant is kidnapped by Morzini and Michel Clément has to free her with the help of his friends.
28	* DisappearedDad: Michel's father was killed when he was a kid.
29	* DisguisedInDrag: Michel has to [[DirtyHarriet dress as a prostitute]] to get out of the cemetery incognito.
30	* DitchTheBodyguards: Marie-Anne Prossant does not want to be protected by the police. She loses Michel Clément and his colleague at the first opportunity.
31	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Morzini cares about his mother.
32	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Morzini thinks that RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil and he does not rape Marie-Anne Prossant, even if she called him a gay and an impotent man.
33	* FakedKidnapping: [[spoiler:In the end, Michel Clément and Marie-Anne Prossant make Louis Prossant think her daughter is still held hostage, so that they can get the ransom.]]
34	* FedoraOfAsskicking: {{Parodied\|Trope}}. Michel Clément wears a fedora to impress Marie-Anne Prossant when he arranges a meeting between her and Morzini.
35	* FollowInMyFootsteps: On his deathbed, Jules Clément orders his son Michel to become a cop.
36	* GraveMarkingScene: After Michel is received at his police exam (mostly because of his father's heroism), Michel and his mother go to the cemetery where his father is buried and celebrate with a [[DrenchCelebration bottle of champagne]] on his grave as if he was alive, [[TheFunInFuneral disturbing a nearby funeral]] doing so.
37	* HandicappedBadass: The handicapped people who work in the jewelry workshop neutralize easily Morzini's gang. Only the leader can escape.
38	* HotPursuit: After the failure of the jewelry workshop hold-up, many police cars chase Morzini.
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40	%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%Hot Scoop is being dewicked after a decision was made to merge it into Hollywood Beauty Standards. Please do not re-add it.
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42	* HumiliationConga: For Morzini. His mother is kidnapped. Michel Clément destroys the castle where he was hiding and frees Marie-Anne Prossant. Morzini is unable to do anything against it.
43	* IHaveYourWife: Morzini kidnaps Marie-Anne Prossant then asks her father to pay a ransom. Then it is {{inverted\|Trope}}: [[spoiler:the hero, Michel Clément, kidnaps Morzini's mother to force him to release Marie-Anne Prossant.]]
44	* ImprovisedWeapon: Michel Clément uses a mechanical digger to fight Morzini in the climax.
45	* IntrepidReporter: Marie-Anne Prossant (Dominique Lavanant) taunts Roger Morzini, a dangerous criminal.
46	* LastMinuteHookup: Michel charms Marie-Anne in the very end of the film.
47	* LawmanGoneBad: [[spoiler:In the end, Michel Clément makes Marie-Anne Prossant's father believe she is still held hostage to get the ransom and get away with her.]]
48	* LemmingCops: After Michel Clément's van [[CarSkiing falls over]] during the HotPursuit, several police cars crash in it.
49	* LibationForTheDead: When Michel gets appointed as inspector, he goes with her mother to his father's grave to announce the news. Her mother opens a bottle of champagne on the grave.
50	* AMinorKidroduction: In the opening sequence, Michel Clément as a child watches his father Jules die as a police hero.
51	* MommasBoy: Michel Clément always obeys his mother. He follows his father's footsteps in the police because of her.
52	* MonochromePast: The opening scene, which is set when Michel Clément was a child, is in black and white.
53	* MyBelovedSmother: Michel Clément's mother controls his life: his career, the clothes he wears...
54	* NewscasterCameo: A real-life journalist, Gérard Holtz, interviews Marie-Anne Prossant.
55	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Roger Morzini (Creator/GerardDepardieu) is based on real-life criminal Jacques Mesrine; Louis Prossant is based on real-life newspaper magnate Robert Hersant.
56	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Michel helps Roger Morzini multiple times: he tells him the police needs one minute to locate a phone call; he brings him to the police office where he learns that the photographer Merlino has betrayed him; he helps Morzini to kidnap Marie-Anne Prossant...
57	* OverlyNervousFlopSweat: Commissioner Vermillot visibly sweats and holds on his tie when Marie-Anne (the journalist) wants explanations on why he and his men [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique brutally interrogated]] Michel, as he doesn't want word of such bad PR to get out.
58	* PayEvilUntoEvil: [[spoiler:Michel kidnaps Morzini's mother, after he kidnapped Marie-Anne Prossant.]]
59	* PhoneCallFromTheDead: {{Subverted\|Trope}}. Michel's mother thinks she received a phone call of her deceased husband, but actually it was a phone call from her son.
60	* PhoneTraceRace: Michel tells Morzini the exact amount of time that the police needs to trace the call, so Morzini can make phone calls safely.
61	* RabidCop: Inspectors Zingo and Gaffuri are violent with the suspects they question.
62	* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Morzini does not want to rape Marie-Anne Prossant, even if she called him a gay and an impotent man.
63	* RescueRomance: Marie-Anne Prossant falls in love with Michel Clément after he frees her from Morzini.
64	* RescueSex: Just after freeing Marie-Anne Prossant, Michel Clément brings her to a hotel and they have sex.
65	* ShoutOut:
66	** Michel's mother approximatively quotes La Rochefoucauld ("l'hommage du vice à la vertu") when she criticizes Michel's friends.
67	** When he invites Roger Morzini in his flat, Michel Clément quotes a poem by Creator/VictorHugo from ''La Légende des siècles'' to describe his father.
68	* SmokingIsCool: {{Parodied\|Trope}}. Michel Clément tries to smoke to impress Marie-Anne Prossant when he arranges a meeting between her and Morzini. He has a cough.
69	* SmoochOfVictory: Marie-Anne Prossant gives one to Michel Clément after he frees her from Morzini.
70	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Michel is the spitting image of his father Jules. Both were played by Coluche.
71	* TalkingToTheDead: Michel and her mother go to his father's grave to talk with him. Just before the climax, her mother goes back to the grave and start talking. Someone answers, but it is not her deceased husband, but her son, hidden in the grave.
72	* TookALevelInBadass: Michel Clément becomes really determined and efficient when he realizes Morzini fooled him. He sets up a plan to free Marie-Anne Prossant. It works. [[spoiler:He even gets the girl and the ransom.]]
73	* TrackingDevice: The policemen put one in Michel's suit and they let him escape, because they think he will lead them to Morzini.
74	* TrickAndFollowPloy: The policemen let Michel Clément escape and they follow him with a TrackingDevice, because they think he will lead them to Morzini. {{Subverted\|Trope}}, because Michel realizes he has a tracking device in his suit, he gets rid of it and the policemen cannot follow his trail.
75	* TrickedIntoEscaping: The policemen let Michel Clément escape because they think he will lead them to Morzini.
76	* UnwantedAssistance: Marie-Anne Prossant does not want to be protected by the police.
77	* WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk: When Michel Clément does not want to make a speech in front of his friends after his appointment, one of them says "Nous avons les moyens de vous faire parler" with a German accent.
78	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Roger Morzini kills the plastic surgeon who gave him a new face just after the operation.

Context Film / InspectorBlunder