Largo Winch (2008)

Largo Winch is a massively successful French/Belgian comic book series which began publication in 1990. It is written by Jean van Hamme and drawn by Philippe Francq. It is about an orphaned boy from the Balkans who was adopted by a corporate tycoon and groomed to be the secret heir to a huge financial empire. Due to the mysterious circumstances of his adoption and the manipulated life he has been forced to live, the adult and intelligent Largo is more than a little skeptical about the whole deal and spends a lot of time deliberately not living up to his father’s expectations. Instead, he lives a lonely drifter life in exotic parts of the world, where he learns interesting martial arts, survival skills and eastern philosophy. When his father is murdered, however, Largo has to deal with the reality of his situation, and step into the shoes left vacant by his father. Fortunately, both his corporate grooming and his exotic travels serve him well in the new job, and he becomes a kind of well-funded corporate James Bond: a playboy hero thrown back and forth between high-stakes office building intrigues and secret agent-style action adventures, while never forgetting his humble beginnings and never losing sight of the corrupting influence of big business.

It’s a cool concept for virtually any entertainment medium, and it has also been done as a TV show that ran for two seasons between 2001 and 2003 (and which, annoyingly, is impossible to find in any language besides French, despite by all accounts being shot in English).

What originally attracted me to the comic book was the artwork of Philippe Francq. It is very crisp and realistic, in an aesthetic style that particularly appeals to me. When producing a motion picture version of such a comic, a paramount concern should be to attain a successful translation of the visual side of the tale from the painted page to the movie screen, capturing a similar look and atmosphere. It has been achieved before, for instance in the 2004 Blueberry movie (which, at least from a visual point of view, is much better than its current 5.1 IMDb rating would indicate), and happily it is also achieved in Largo Winch.

This first major motion picture based on the best-selling comic book possesses both the budget and the directorial vision required to bring the comic book excellently to life in the luxuriantly mediterranean style of Francq’s artwork, encompassing everything from fast cars to beautiful, exotic locales, and with a generous helping of devious corporate mercenaries of both sexes thrown in. The movie spans plot elements from the first three albums in the series (which thus far numbers 17 albums, the most recent being from 2010). Largo’s adopted father, Nerio Winch, is the victim of a conspiracy aiming to take-over his billion-dollar corporate empire, known as the W Group. Largo himself is also targeted, and both he and his adopted brother must negotiate the mistrust, deceptions and betrayals of leading members of the W Group board, who have great vested interests in the fate of the group.

It works splendidly. Actor Tomer Sisley is perfect as a disillusioned, no-nonsense and shrewd Largo Winch, who nonetheless maintains a likable detachment to the corporate world by repeatedly throwing himself into dangerous waters, deftly springing and anticipating the traps set for him by the ruthless executives obsessed with stealing his wealth (one of whom is played very well by the multilingual Kristin Scott Thomas).

I attended a Danish comic convention in 2010 where I met the writer of the comic book, Jean van Hamme. At the time I had not seen this 2008 movie, but I knew of it, and I asked him what he thought of it. He said he thought it was pretty good, but that the sequel, co-starring Sharon Stone, would be better. This, of course, made me look forward to seeing both this movie and the sequel, which I now finally have the opportunity to. My review of Largo Winch II: The Burma Conspiracy (2011) is up next.

My DVD version of the first Largo Winch movie is the British release, titled Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge. Besides a trailer and two sound options (stereo or surround), it has no extra features, which is a shame, as there are two-disc versions out in France and Germany. The fanboy in me would have loved a commentary track. Still, the picture looks good and the movie has subtitles for the non-English parts, so the experience of the movie itself is a satisfying one.

Director: Jerome Salle
Cast: Tomer Sisley, Kristin Scott Thomas, Miki Manojlovic, Melanie Thierry, Steven Waddington and others
Runtime: 104 min.
Country: France, Belgium

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