Un crime

Novelist, justice campaigner and political activist Gilles Perrault wrote 'Le Derapage' in 1987. He was not involved in this adaptation and by all accounts was thoroughly displeased with the finished product.

Speaking as one who has not read the original I would have to say that this is certainly one of Jacques Deray's best films and is arguably the finest of his nine collaborations with Alain Delon since 'La Piscine' twenty-five years earlier. Sincere apologies to devotees of 'Borsalino'!

Having successfully defended the young Frederic on a charge of having murdered both his parents lawyer Dunand is then informed by his client that he is in fact guilty.......

This is less like a film than a play that occasionally strays outside the proscenium arch and relies on the cat-and-mouse-game between Delon as Dunand and Manuel Blanc as Frederic. There are manifold twists and turns here but the film is driven by character rather than plot and both actors are splendid. Blanc here is following up his Cesar as 'most promising newcomer' in 'J'embrasse pas' and Delon has his most interesting role since his own Cesar winning performance in the bizarre 'Notre Histoire' of 1984.

One critic has said of Delon in this that behind every iconic star there is a great actor struggling to get out. I think that Monsieur Delon had already proved on more than one occasion that given the right material and director, he is capable of excellent performances. He made one more film with Deray and also had a stab at playing Casanova, although physically miscast. He went on to make his mark on the small screen but in terms of performance quality his portayal of Dunand represents his filmic last hurrah.

When Deray shuffled off this mortal coil in 2003 he got a mention from President Jacques Chirac but was overlooked at the Cesar ceremony that year. Oversight or cinematic snobbery? I wonder.

Because Delon's popularity was sinking fast and Jacques DEray was dismissed as unhip this deliciously old-fashioned film was unfairly unnoticed and nobody seems to care now.

Jacques Deray 's film is a wonderful tribute to old cinema ,that cinema with strong screenplays which preceded the French new wave .It's interesting to note that ,unlike,say,Jean-Paul Belmondo ,Alain Delon never worked with the Young Turks : it did not prevent him,anyway,from working with great directors such as René Clément -he was a better Ripley than Matt Damon- Luchino Visconti and Joseph Losey ,to name but three.He was also featured in the great Duvivier 's last -and unfortunately rather weak- work "diaboliquement vôtre"(1966) and he had the guts to defend the "old" man against the new wave's hateful attacks.

"Un crime" is "back to the forties and the fifties".Forget the color and think Duvivier,Clouzot and most particularly Henry Decoin ("les inconnus dans la maison" "la vérité sur bébé Donge" ""non coupable" )and André Cayatte (one of his latter works "verdict" but also "le glaive et la balance" and "justice est faite").Deray is perhaps not in the same league ,particularly he had not Duvivier's or Clouzot's genius but here he delivers the goods and the screenplay has enough unexpected twists to satisfy the lovers of, say , "primal fear" -sometimes Manuel Blanc 's Frederic is close to Edward Norton's character and it's not plagiarism,because "un crime' was made before- Most of the time ,there are only two men on the stage ,and they sustain interest till the very end.Frederic's luxury flat is also part of the game ,and ,with astute and subtle flashbacks,Deray reveals its secrets little by little.

Delon's fans were not satisfied,because it was definitely a thankless part :a brilliant lawyer who always wins at the beginning, he's slowly turning into a jaded disenchanted human being.

Best moment:the flowers Manuel Blanc throws on the floor,a scene a lot of "modern" directors" could be proud of.

It 's a short film -about 85 minutes and they say Gilles Perrault did not approve of the adaptation of his novel,but you should have a look at it.