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French films Thriller
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It is a rare that a sequel to a popular film is anywhere near as good as the original and Borsalino and Co. proves the point with (literally) a vengeance. The 1970 film Borsalino was quite a respectable gangster film, bearing a favourable comparison with Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films which appeared later in the same decade...
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After the enormous success of Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972), director Yves Robert and screenwriter Francis Veber would have been mad not to have made a sequel. Sure enough, two years later Pierre Richard – alias “le grand blond” – returned to delight audiences in probably his best-loved role...
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Coming towards the end of Claude Chabrol’s second gold run of films, which ran from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, Nada stands out as something of an oddity – a mix of political thriller and black comedy which has a far darker, far more ironic edge than anything Chabrol directed in this, arguably his best...
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Georges Franju’s last film for the cinema was to be his second homage to the silent Louis Feuillade crime serials of the 1910s – the first being his inspired remake of Judex in 1963. Nuits rouges is a curious cinematic beast that owes as much to the adolescent American fantasy-thriller serials of the 1940s and 1960s as it does to Feuillade...
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This French police drama focuses mainly on the politics of the police department and the often dubious relationship between police, criminals and politicians. What could be a routine docu-drama is enlivened by the contrasting performances of the no-nonsense Ventura and jester-like Dewaere. And there are also exciting moments like a siege of the city hall and an attempted arrest of Proctor...
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Based on a real-life account by police investigator- turned- best-selling novelist Roger Borniche, Flic Story is a compelling crime-thriller, of the kind that was hugely popular in France in the 1970s. The glacial, existentialist mood, the attention to minutiae, the moral ambiguity of police and crooks – all are clear references to the films of Jean-Pierre Melville...
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Il faut vivre dangereusement is a well-intentioned parody of the American film noir thriller, although, with its Grand Guignol killings, endless bedroom antics and surfeit of unsubtle erotica it has a distinctly French feel to it. This was the one and only full length film to be directed by Claude Makovski, based on a novel by Raymond Marlot with a screenplay co-authored by Nelly Kaplan...
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Jean-Louis Trintignant gives one his most intense performances in this carefully constructed psychological thriller. In one of his better films, Gérard Pirès (director of the 1990s hit Taxi) manages to convey Varlin’s mood of paranoia and desire for revenge with sober minimalist photography, effective lighting and well-choreographed stunts...
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Whilst not generally regarded as one of Claude Chabrol’s better works, Les innocents aux mains sales is still definitely worth watching if only because it is one of the director’s weirder and less predictable films. It is quite a disturbing film, bleakly cynical in its portrayal of both marriage and the legal system...
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This high budget, fast moving action thriller typifies the kind of film that was hugely popular in France in the mid- 1970s. Peur sur la ville epitomises the crime thriller or ’polar’ of that decade, in which tough cops pursue tough villains, with an emphasis on action stunts over plot and characterisation. The film starred Jean-Paul Belmondo...
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Having worked successfully with Jean-Paul Belmondo on L’Heritier (1973), the journalist-director Philippe Labro was keen to work with Belmondo again and proposed a hard-edged crime thriller initially entitled "Les Animaux dans la jungle". Belmondo was attracted by Labro’s initial script, but asked him to emphasise the solitary nature of the character he would play...
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Barocco is in essence a great film which has been savagely mutilated through a combination of not entirely convincing acting and excessively self-conscious photography. It features one of Isabelle Adjani’s worst screen performances (which is saying something) and Depardieu doesn’t really get the opportunity to show his talent as a great actor...
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In stark contrast to the crime thrillers with which Belmondo is better known, Le Corps de mon ennemi has an almost total absence of action and physical displays of violence. Director Henri Verneuil was keen that his star actor should appear in a very different kind of film to say, Peur sur la ville, to show his qualities as an actor instead of his skill as an action stunt man...
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Following Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Roman Polanski completed his masterful trilogy of social isolation and paranoia with The Tenant (Le Locataire) in 1974. In essence, all three films tell the same story – that of a seemingly well-balanced individual, a loner, who is driven to insanity through an increasing fear of those around him or her...
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Police Python 357 is the film that established Alain Corneau as one of France’s most promising young directors in the mid-1970s. He had previously made just one film, France société anonyme (1974), which had also been well-received by the critics. For French cinema, the 1970s was primarily the decade of the policier...
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After their great success with Police Python 357 in 1976, director Alain Corneau and actor Yves Montand are reunited for a similarly well-crafted and suspenseful film noir thriller. Although the plot is something of a mess, with one improbable plot development repeatedly overtaken by an even more improbable plot development...
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This is a hard-edged detective-thriller, in the style of a latterday western, which shows director Yves Boisset at his best. He is well served by an excellent cast, headed by Patrick Dewaere, Jean-Marc Bory and Philippe Léotard. The action scenes are well directed, well photographed and genuinely tense and exciting...
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With its exceptional production values (not least of which is its high-calibre cast), Mort d’un pourri is the definitive 1970s policier. Well-paced, well-written and filmed with panache, this is a rare example of a French crime thriller which can rightly be termed a work of art (falling just short of the genius shown by Jean-Pierre Melville in his thrillers)...
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Possibly Michel Deville’s best film – certainly his most distinctive – is this disturbing political thriller. The unconventional style of the narrative and the editing underscores the film’s main theme, which concerns the extent to which technology dehumanises society, reducing individuals to nameless commodities...
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What goes around, comes around. At the time L’Argent des autres was made, in the late 1970s, France was reeling from a series of financial and political scandals that would have a lasting impact. The film itself was based on a novel that was inspired by one of the most infamous fraud cases of the 1960s, the Patrimoine Foncier affair...
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