La Gifle film's iconic slap and hovercraft details examined

The 1974 French drama *La Gifle*, directed by Claude Pinoteau and starring Isabelle Adjani and Lino Ventura, was rebroadcast on France 5 on 4 August 2026. Recent commentary revisits the film’s famous slap scene, with some sources claiming Ventura actually struck Adjani, prompting genuine tears. Pinoteau, however, wrote that the tear‑filled close‑up was filmed before the slap and that Adjani had suggested a real slap might help her performance, but the director later clarified the gesture was staged. Adjani recalled joking, “On m’a bien prévenue que Lino Ventura est un ancien catcheur…”, underscoring the mythic status of the moment.

The movie also features a striking crossing of the English Channel by an air‑cushion vehicle. The hovercraft shown is a Saunders‑Roe SR.N4 operated by the British company Hoverlloyd, a service that linked France and England in the 1970s. The sequence highlights the era’s emerging international transport options and includes identifiable units such as the “Swift” and “Sure”. Both pieces illustrate how *La Gifle* captures cultural and technological details of its time.