Boulevard des assassins

Inspired by a true story which was widely talked about at the time,"Boulevard des assassins " boasts a good cast featuring Jean-Louis Trintignant,Victor Lanoux ,Marie-France Pisier and Stephane Audran -an actress who sometimes gives a Chabrolesque feel to the atmosphere-,but does not deliver the goods.Like in Robert Wise's film noir "captive city",we do not know exactly who they are,those murderers who do away with old ladies to appropriate their valuable sites.And the mayor of the town might be behind these very bad things. But Robert Wise 's work was some fifty years ago,and in 1982 ,the topic was hackneyed and here the directing is completely listless the screenplay muddled and the characters incapable of sustaining any interest.

In this complicated story we follow the steps taken by journalist/writer Daniel Salmon to uncover the truth about murders in the town of Hyères in the south of France. A rather cold blooded writer this Daniel Salmon, and not easily deterred by people dying around him. I think this is not a bad movie even though there isn't much action in it. What counts is more what's not said, what stays hidden from us. The events in this movie will not surprise anyone, because, thanks to a much higher level of access to information, we see so much corruption these days in the highest levels of society. But you might be left to wonder, as I was, what is pushing this writer to keep at it while people are dying around him. The weird part is that he's not even from that city, Hyères. So, what's pushing him to take chances, and endanger other's lives. I don't know. As much as I hate corruption, it's just hard to get sympathetic with such a character. The facts exposed, the way people in position of command in a city can use illegal acts, downright to murder, remains interesting. Specially when you know that it is based on a true story.

For the rest, besides Victor Lanoux - as a nasty character, an awesome performance - and Jean Louis Trintignant, it is a perfect sleeping film, which topic could remind LE CORPS DE MON ENNEMI, not exactly the same story but a same kind of atmosphere. Claude Chabrol like schemes are not far. Yes, that's it, the Chabrol's films, I guess, inspired this screenplay, and also maybe because of the presence of Stephane Audran - Chabrol's favourite actress. I know, it is adapted from a Max Gallo's novel, that I have not read, but the result is a bit boring and the ending saves the whole for someone like me. It looks like the end of LE SECRET, from director Robert Enrico. I don't know the director, never heard of him before. The usual forgettable French crime movie from the early eighties but with some seventies style, not eighties.