Coup de Torchon (also known as Clean Slate) is a 1981 French crime film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and adapted from Jim Thompson's 1964 novel Pop.

Coup de Torchon was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 55th Academy Awards The opening scene takes place during a solar eclipse (July 1938).

The main character – Lucien Cordier – observes a group of starving African children eating sand to suppress their hunger.

It's these pimps who push him over the edge, prompting him to consult his superior, Chavasson, who advises him to take decisive action.

[5] The New York Times praised the performances and "the meticulousness and conviction on display here" but also added that the film "seems strangely lacking in overall momentum and direction.

"[3] Roger Ebert called it "a cruel intellectual joke played on its characters" and said the film "left me cold, unmoved and uninvolved.

"[6] Time Out said "this eccentric, darkly comic look at a series of bizarre murders is stylishly well-crafted, and thoroughly entertaining" and "embellished with black wit and an elegant visual sense.

"[7] TV Guide called it a "stylish, twisted black comedy... with as dead-on an evocation of a torpid, seedy backwater as anyone has achieved on screen.