In Le Magnifique (Philippe de Broca, 1973) François Merlin, played by Belmondo, is an author who lives vicariously through his routinely published short espionage stories.  His stories suave protagonist, Bob Sinclair, is everything Merlin is not, but desires to be.  Where Merlin is timid and passive, Bob is brash and masculine.  Where Bob is a seducer, Merlin is inept.  Where Bob can make the effortless jump into a parked car in slow motion, Merlin fumbles.   The film slips back and forth between Bob’s fantasy and Merlin’s reality.  The irony is that while Bob Sinclair is an icon widely known, Merlin is almost a nobody.

Merlin is treated much like his short novels, which are enjoyed quickly and then discarded. His son from a divorced marriage visits him for a quick bite and some cash, then hastily departs like the electrician and plumber.

Most of the fantasy portion of the film follows Bob in Mexico, and while a crisis is repeatedly alluded to, we never see much in the way of an actual mission. Instead, Mexico is merely an exotic backdrop for Bob to clash with his arch nemise, the Albanian secret services leader Karpov, who is also Merlin’s editor. They repeatedly face off leaving a wake of destruction.  In their final showdown, after the comic rape scene of Tatiana, who is modeled after Merlin’s crush, Christine, the two face off in a busy city street.  Walking towards each other like a scene from a western, they embrace and begin to dance.  An abused and confused Tatiana stares and the two incredulously.  This change of character on the part of Bob and dismissal of Tatiana is a manifestation of Merlin’s feelings of betrayal after discovering Christine’s party which includes his editor Pierre Charron.

I do not see Le Magnifique as a problematic film in terms of representations of race. The whole film has a light hearted, not to be taken seriously tone to it.  It was this light hearted, comedic tone, which struck me as incongruous with the repeated rape of Tatiana.