Hothead

Coup de tête (Hothead, 1979) is a French tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM — an early feature from director Jean-Jacques Annaud, years before The Name of the Rose.

François Perrin is the washed-up benchwarmer of a small-town football club, mocked by a whole community that lives and breathes its team. Framed and turned into a scapegoat, he ends up behind bars. Then the club desperately needs a win, drags the outcast back onto the pitch — and once he's the local hero, he aims that fame squarely at the people who humiliated him. Patrick Dewaere plays him cold and bitter. The screenplay comes from Francis Veber, and Annaud directs right after taking the Foreign Language Oscar for Black and White in Color. A sharp jab at provincial football worship and the crowds that build idols only to lean on them. Stream Coup de tête online on iFILM.