The original Robin Hood but make it French and absolutely unhinged about tax evasion.
Around 1750, in the Dauphiné not far from the Swiss border, a cooper, tired of the injustices affecting the peasants crushed by taxes, went into revolt. Louis Mandrin, a handsome fellow without fear and without reproach, puts himself out of the law by refusing to obey the local nobility. The public authorities are tearing their hair out because the man is elusive. Helped by his faithful friends and by two women in love, Mandrin will become a legend.
Costume
Madame de Pompadour's wigs deserve their own billing.
Acting
José Noguéro's eyebrow acting carries entire scenes.
Director
René Jayet
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mandrin was a real smuggler executed in 1755; his corpse was displayed for weeks as a warning. The film's cheerful tone is... a choice.
This was planned as the first of two parts, but Part 2 never materialized—leaving Mandrin eternally mid-legend.
FR
