A plea against capital punishment, something director Giovanni knew something about. Under the name of Joseph Damiani, he was sentenced to death for three pre-meditated murders in ‘48. He’d been previously denied all civil rights for having been a collaborationist and a member of the PPF Fascist Party in ‘46’; and later, in ’49, he was sentenced for ten years for blackmailing hidden Jews during the Occupation. Damiani was pardoned after serving 11 years and encouraged to write about his experiences. Under the name of José Giovanni, he wrote 24 novels, a staple of Serie Noir. Some were adapted to films — LE TROU (Jacques Becker, 1960); CLASSE TOUS RISQUES (Claude Sautet, 1964); LE DEUXIÈME SOUFFLE adapted first by Jean-Pierre Melville in 1966 and later by Alain Corneau in 2007 – and they too became classics of a kind. I want to know more about Damiani/Giovanni.
I’ve not read any of Giovanni’s novels. But his films are coarse, pulpy, lacking in subtlety and depth and visually perfunctory. DEUX HOMMES EN VILLE is a good example. It’s a message film, a plea against capital punishment. Delon is a bank robber released thanks to the support of his social worker, Jean Gabin. Everything goes well until the policeman who sent him in ends up in the same provincial town and begins to make his life so impossible Delon ends up killing him in a rage and paying for it with his neck. It all culminates in a preachy court-room scene where Capital Punishment is decried as Delon is found guiltuy and followed by a crudely conceived guillotine scene – where all the film has led to, its singular point. Gabin gives the only un-interesting performance I’ve seen him give: sure, smug, patronising. It is nonetheless a pleasure to see him with Delon. Depardieu also appears in a small role, making of this film an opportunity to see three giants of French cinema together. The best performance in the film is Michel Bouquet as the Javert-like inspector who hounds Delon’s ex-con to the point of insanity and onto the guillotine.
DEUX HOMMES EN VILLE was a big hit. It was remade in 2014 as TWO MEN IN TOWN by Rachid Bouchareb, with Harvey Keitel and Forest Whitaker in the Gabin and Delon roles respectively. I saw it in a restored version that looks crisp but. given what a trial it was to sit through, I didn’t much care. Delon produced.
José Arroyo