Metrograph

Jean-Pierre Léaud plays Billy the Kid, and things only get stranger from there in Moullet’s newly restored, slapstick Bouillabaisse Western, which follows Léaud’s loony Billy across the rugged terrain of the Hautes Alps, fleeing the law and hostile natives with the sultry Rachel Kersterber, first at his side, then on his tail. A cockeyed genre-bending comedy that owes more to B-movie oaters than to John Ford and more to Chuck Jones than either, in which every cut to a new deliberate misframing—courtesy of editor Jean Eustache—might as well come with a punchline rimshot, boasting an off-key theme song and harmonium-esque score by the director’s brother, Patrice, of the cult group Alpes.

Film restored by La Traverse with the assistance of the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC). Restorations carried out by Cosmodigital and L.E. Diapason and distributed in North America by Cinema Guild.

A Cinema Guild release