So Long, Stooge (French title: Tchao Pantin) is a 1983 film directed by Claude Berri. It is based on a novel by Alain Page. Coluche, the lead, won the César Award for Best Actor. The film was selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 57th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. Plot Lambert, a withdrawn middle-aged man, works the night shift at a Parisian petrol station. He has no friends, no family; his only companion is his bottle of rum. One night, a young Arab man, Bensoussan, enters his shop — and his life. This stranger has also no family, lives alone in a dingy room, and scrapes together a living as a drug dealer. The two solitary men develop a friendship — but this is brutally brought to an end when Bensoussan is killed in front of Lambert. Lambert soon realises that his new friend was murdered by his drug dealing associates and sets out to avenge his death — assisted by Lola, a punk girl who knew Bensoussan briefly. By doing this, Lambert manages to come to terms with his own tragic past. Cast Coluche as Lambert Richard Anconina as Bensoussan Agnès Soral as Lola Philippe Léotard as Bauer Ahmed Ben Ismaël as Mahmoud Production Development In 1982, during a train trip, producer Christian Spillmaecker read several novels, including Tchao Pantin by Alain Page, recently published. Spillmaecker was thrilled by the story of Lambert, a depressed former cop turned pump attendant, determined to find the murderers of a small dealer whom he identifies with his son. The producer passed the book to Claude Berri at the last minute. Although not very enthusiastic, Berri saw in Lambert a role for Coluche, with whom he had filmed Le Pistonné and The Schoolmaster (Berri also produced a few films with Coluche) and bought the rights to the novel. He passed the subject to the actor who at first refused such a dark role. According to Fred Romano, Coluche's partner at the time, the latter "was full of complexes" and did "not want to be caught in a game where he was not in control". However, Coluche facing a large tax debt, signed to play Lambert, but his heart was not in it. Indeed, the actor was going through a bad patch: his wife Véronique left him with their two children and his