Mord am Montmartre

When the end of your career is seen as worthless,the things that came before can sometimes be retrospectively tarnished by association.Such is Gilles Grangier.One often forgets that during the fifties,he made interesting works-much was perfectly acceptable,some highly commendable:"le désordre et la nuit" "le sang à la tête" and this "reproduction interdite" (aka "meurtre à montmartre",which seems to be its title now).

"Reproduction interdite" deals with crooks who sell Gaughin forgeries;it has a very strong screenplay with plenty of unexpected twists and surprises and much humour noir.The cast is perfect:Paul Frankeur, a father unable to relate to his son;Michel Auclair,a spineless elegant villain;Gianni Esposito,an alcoholic artist down on his luck;Annie Girardot,his smart wife;Lucien Nat,a shrewd expert.

The screenplay is really good.Patricia Highsmith's second book featuring Ripley(Ripley Under Ground ,1970) has a plot which strongly looks like Michel Lebrun's script .