| Backfire | |
| Director: | Jean Becker |
| Producer: | Paul-Edmond Decharme |
| Screenplay: | Jean Becker Maurice Fabre Didier Goulard Luis Marquina Claude Sautet dialogue Daniel Boulanger |
| Based On: | the novel by Clet Coroner |
| Starring: | Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean Seberg Enrico Maria Salerno |
| Music: | Grégorio García Ségura Martial Solal |
| Cinematography: | Edmond Séchan |
| Editing: | Monique Kirsanoff |
| Studio: | Capotole Movies South Pacific Films |
| Distributor: | CCFC (France) Royal Films International (US) |
| Runtime: | 97 mins |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
| Gross: | 2,007,088 admissions (France)[1] |
Backfire (French: Échappement libre, Italian: Scappamento aperto, Spanish; Castilian: A escape libre) is a 1964 French crime film directed by Jean Becker, which stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, reuniting for the first time since Breathless (1960).
A criminal organisation offers a Parisian man, David, $10,000 to transport a car across Europe. They tell him little about it except that drugs are not involved. He is accompanied by a photographer, Olga.
David discovers he is smuggling gold. The two travel to Beirut then Damascus. They fall in love and David wants the gold for himself.
The film was made by the same team who had produced Banana Peel (1963).
It was to have starred Jean Louis Trintignant but he withdrew and was replaced by Belmondo.[2]
Filming took place from February 10 to April 7, 1964. Costa-Gavras was an assistant director.[1]
The film was the 19th most popular movie at the French box office in 1964.[3]
In 2020 Fimink wrote "The film’s existence is ideal useless trivia to annoy people with now that the Jean Seberg biopic has come out."[4]