Saw Borsalino last night, as good an example of a star vehicle as you’ll find. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo are gangsters in 1930s Marseilles; Belmondo has taken over Delon’s girl while he serves time. When he gets out, they get into a fight over her, find they’re equally matched, team up and take-over the Marseilles mafia. Delon is feline, mysterious, aspiring to elegant living but not afraid to get dirty. Belmondo is good natured, happy with the simpler things, and likes to show off, either through his too-loud clothes or through his body, which is in much better shape than Delon’s. It’s a charming film, a good-natured pastiche of gangster films, all about fulfilling or playing with the audience’s expectations of what these particular stars do and the particular ways they glitter and shine. There are scenes of them in new suits, strutting up or down staircases, where you just know it’s designed to make the audience sigh or purr or go ‘WOW!’ That’s really what the whole film is for, a play on star personas to make them exponentially powerful together, rather like Brangelina at a later time. An enormous hit, a clear influence on THE STING in tone look, and even music. Perssonally I prefer watching the Delon/Belmondo to the Newman/Redford. A fun watch.
A great year for Delon as LE CERCLE ROUGE also made the list of top ten box office hits.
José Arroyo