craner

Beast of Burden
So there's a subcultural French crime film genre outside of Melville? I know nothing about it, who are the main directors, and what distinguishes it from the British, American, Italian and Japanese crime flicks?
 

firefinga

Well-known member
So there's a subcultural French crime film genre outside of Melville? I know nothing about it, who are the main directors, and what distinguishes it from the British, American, Italian and Japanese crime flicks?

Main star was Jean Paul Belmondo, those movies were quite successful in terms of popularity, in France and Germany/Austria, also in Italy, Spain. Pretty much everywhere in europe except for the UK and Ireland probably. Also lots of comedies. spanned from the 1960s until the late 1980s.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Interesting, thanks. What makes them worth tracking down, though? I mean, I constantly entice people into checking out the goldmine of the Italian genres here. You have to tempt us to take the time and effort to watch these. What makes the French crime film so good? (I am a massive sceptic of French cinematic reputation, will take a lot to convince me otherwise.)
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Keeping in mind I have enthusiastically endorsed some total trash here, if you go back a few pages.
 

firefinga

Well-known member
Interesting, thanks. What makes them worth tracking down, though? I mean, I constantly entice people into checking out the goldmine of the Italian genres here. You have to tempt us to take the time and effort to watch these. What makes the French crime film so good? (I am a massive sceptic of French cinematic reputation, will take a lot to convince me otherwise.)

They aren't that different really from the 1970s Italian crime movies, but usually the French movies (especially when starring Belmondo) had lots of action, good scores, and the policemen - even if the main character was a cop - were all corrupt. But then, I have a thing for 1970s cinema in general and grew up with those flix on late night tv.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
They sound exactly like the Italian ones, except that the Italian ones have now become famous for their kinetic energy, extreme violence, terrible sexual ethics and killer scores. Why have the French ones languished if they are as good as you say?

I just mean to say, for example, the Italian flicks inspired a whole documentary called 'Eurocrime'. Could the French carry that?
 

firefinga

Well-known member
They sound exactly like the Italian ones, except that the Italian ones have now become famous for their kinetic energy, extreme violence, terrible sexual ethics and killer scores. Why have the French ones languished if they are as good as you say?

I just mean to say, for example, the Italian flicks inspired a whole documentary called 'Eurocrime'. Could the French carry that?

Good question, bc the French ones were also quite violent and had lots of sex. Possibly bc the main personell never tried to connect to Hollywood. Lots of the Italian directors/actors/musicians at least had some connections there.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Yes, there was a lot of co-production between France, Italy, Germany and Spain in the glory 60s/70s days. Definitely more interested now, thanks for the links.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
More connections with European finances and producers with the Italians. Fernando de Leo, Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodatti and Enzo Castellari made their films with no connection to America, but lots of pan-European money
 

luka

Well-known member
One of craners many contentious opinions is that the French don't understand cinema and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near movie cameras
 

firefinga

Well-known member
One of craners many contentious opinions is that the French don't understand cinema and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near movie cameras

There is this tradition of French film making which appeals mostly to the arthouse-crowd and frankly, that branch indeed is somewhat questionable. But then there is this rich tradition of popular French cinema (the mentioned crime stories, but also tons of comedy) which was very successful at the pan-european box offices (and possibly looked down on by the arthouse-snobs) that is quite unknown in the english speaking world. After all, the French were able to produce commercially successful films at least up until the late 1980s.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Honestly, I am willing to believe you despite my stubborn cinematic Francophobia, but in this day and age, when every piece of genre trash and gold is being dug up and restored by so many companies like Arrow, Blue Underground, Severin, 88 Films, Criterion, Mondo Macabre, Kosch Media, Something Weird, Retromedia, Eureka, Synapse, Raro, Shameless...how have these been ignored? Spain has had the treatment, even Turkey, the Philippines, South America...
 

firefinga

Well-known member
...how have these been ignored?

The stuff gets rereleased on DVD/BluRay constantly, at least for the German-speaking countries and also Spain and Italy. I think it got really to do with the fact they weren't originally released in English-speaking countries and the companies don't think the stuff will shift many units there. In fact, many of these movies I was posting the trailers for were done/financed by rather big companies and studios which still exist, so there won't be smaller publishers releasing the movies for niche markets.
 

bruno

est malade
i would follow kinski, delon and pal maurice ronet for a romp through the best stuff. not sure how this fits the eurocult cannon, but in spirit this is all curious and (mostly) gallic, the obsession with state/secrecy/power being a hallmark.

some faves:

l'attentat (1972)
political assassination thriller with an all-star cast (trintignant, seberg, volonté etc.). the fate of one man against dark factions in french politics, very bleak and not the kind of thing that will ever be picked up by criterion.

le dossier 51 (1978)
weird, electronic spy film film sees up-and-coming politician targeted by a shadow intelligence outfit, setting him up for ruin via a very french dark art: psychology.

brigade mondaine (1978)
a wonderful, trashy view into the world of the vice squad as immortalised by gerard de villiers, the brilliant (dead) writer of french pulp crime. also great soundtrack by french disco master cerrone.

mort d'un pourri (1977)
perfectly cast film (delon, ronet, kinski as baddie, ornella muti) laying bare the sinsiter world of french politics with its corporate masters; dark and ever relevant in my view.

there is other stuff (la chair de l'orchidée, killer truck/haine) that does not fit the canon but shows the other france in a way that may be of interest to eurocult watchers.

also out of the canon but a personal favourite is the day of the jackal (1973). not french, but french in spirit (and set in france), this follows a brit hired by the oas to assassinate de gaulle. all the minutae of preparation, deception and political high stakes are as french as it gets, embodied in a perfectly dressed killer and his very french detective arch nemesis. terrific.
 
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