Coup de Torchon

Coup de Torchon
Theatrical poster
Directed byBertrand Tavernier
Screenplay byBertrand Tavernier
Jean Aurenche
Based onPop. 1280
by Jim Thompson
Produced byHenri Lassa
Adolphe Viezzi
StarringPhilippe Noiret
Isabelle Huppert
Jean-Pierre Marielle
CinematographyPierre-William Glenn
Edited byArmand Psenny
Music byPhilippe Sarde
Distributed byParafrance Films
Release date
  • 4 November 1981 (1981-11-04)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$16.5 million

Coup de Torchon (also known as Clean Slate) is a 1981 French crime film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and adapted from Jim Thompson's 1964 novel Pop. 1280. The film changes the novel's setting from an American Southern town to a small town in French West Africa. The film had 2,199,309 admissions in France and was the 16th most attended film of the year. It received the Prix Méliès from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics as the best French film of 1981.

Coup de Torchon was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 55th Academy Awards