A man called Ventura. Lino Ventura., 28 August 2003 Author: andrei cretulescu (andrei.cretulescu@hbo.ro) from Bucharest, Romania Excellent adventure yarn, great locations, moody music. The last "action-picture" from the late great french director Claude Sautet - from this he went on and did Les choses de la vie, Cesar et Rosalie, Vincent, Francois, Paul et les autres, plus the two masterpieces Un coeur en hiver and Nelly et M.Arnaud, his final movie, from 1994. By the way, he also wrote Borsalino (for Jacques Deray) and Les yeux sans visage (for Georges Franju). L'arme a gauche is not, by all means, a great movie - but compared to the contemporary crap we're fed every day it's outstanding. The plot concerns a ship stolen by gun dealers somewhere in Central America, but it's merely an excuse for 102 minutes of pure joy, given the fact that the lead is played by l'inoubliable Lino Ventura. He alone makes this little movie worth seeing - I mean, the guy was the walking definition of the term cool... Those of you not familiar with Ventura (shame on you!) must not believe that looks are everything - check out his eyes, his moves and his harsh voice in Le clan de siciliens, Ne nous fachons pas or Adieu poulet (not to mention Les tontons flingueurs) and you will agree that he was in the same league with Jean Gabin. To put it another way, one of the best actors ever.