L'emmerdeur

Édouard Molinaro directed the 1973 French-Italian black comedy L'emmerdeur (literally "The Troublemaker"). It runs about 80 minutes, was shot in French and is also classed as a buddy film. In English-speaking markets it was sold as A Pain in the Ass, in Germany as Die Filzlaus and in East Germany as Die Klette. It is also known as Jacques Brel's tenth and last feature film.

The story starts with a contract killer: a professional hitman takes a hotel room to wait for his victim, but his plan is wrecked by a suicidal salesman next door. Afraid that a death would bring the police to the hotel, the killer unwillingly becomes the man's protector and has to prevent the suicide. Their reluctant partnership feeds both tension and humour. Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel lead the cast, with Caroline Cellier, Jean-Pierre Darras, Nino Castelnuovo and André Valardy also appearing.

Francis Veber adapted the screenplay from his own stage play Le contrat, which opened in Paris in September 1970 and was a hit again in a 2005 revival. Alexandre Mnouchkine produced. The story has been retold several times: the American Buddy Buddy (1981), the Turkish adaptation Baş Belası (1982), a reworked version Veber himself directed in 2008, and the Indian Bumboo (2012).