Les égouts du paradis

This crime drama tells the true story of Albert Spaggiari. Spaggiari (Francis Huster) masterminded one of the biggest bank jobs in modern history when he and a group of underworld types dug through the sewers to break into the Société Générale bank in Nice, France. The group, who broke in over a holiday weekend, eventually took 60 million francs. The film follows Spaggiari from the time he devises the scheme to act itself and ends with his astounding escape from custody. Huster is quite good as the likable thief and there is a fine supporting cast. Director Jose Giovanni gets a little bit political at times but it is never heavy handed. Having worked previously with both Delon and Belmondo, he handles the action well although a lot of it is routinely following the guys as they dig. The Spaggiari story also provided the groundwork for THE GREAT RIVERIA BANK ROBBERY from the same year. In that one, Ian (DEADWOOD) McShane plays the Spaggiari role as "The Brain."

I was only thirteen years old, in July 1976, when these events occurred. Since the very first day, I was immersed in this fantastic tale, I read every newspaper comment about it, even read the book written later by Spaggiari himself. The film is very good, of course, pulled by a convinced Giovanni. But the novel is far better, because it describes in a terrific way, what that journey through sh..., rats, all kinds of excrements, this unbelievable but true dive into the city intestines was. He tells in the book how him and his associates swallowed sh..through mouth and nose, how one vomited and let his companions sneaking behind him swallowing the vomit of the man walking just in front of him. I guess NO film could have told such things with the power of the book, written by the main actor, the man who actually lived this. Those men were not really gangsters for me, but adventurers. The description of the safe deposit room, whilst they cracked the boxes with the cutting torches, is closer to the autobiographic novel than the tunnel and sewers sequences. But those sequences among the city anus were shot in real settings. As long as I will live, I will forever be fascinated by this story. But don't forget that Spaggiari was not a gangster, a thief, yes, but not a real hoodlum. He was first an ex Indochina war soldier, a rough fighter, a former paratrooper, extreme right wing member, a sort of light heart fascist, who also hated Black people, Jews, homosexuals, who was against democracy, communism...But he was a great writer, and also a sort of poet. He was not a ruthless executive like, who was ready to sacrifice men and women for money. He despised money more than anyone else. He only searched adventure here. Only. Most of those men were never arrested, nor identified, except him and maybe a couple of the real gangsters, the safe crackers, but not his mercenaries former combat friends. And I even don't speak of the loot. The most amusing is that, after the robbery, only 317 safe deposit boxes were cracked, out of the 4000 which the safe deposit room contained; so the customers of the bank, who owned a box, did not know if yes or no their belongings had been stolen by the thieves. And they hesitated to declare to the insurances what the deposit boxes contained. They hesitated to declare their jewels, gold, cash and so on...See what I mean? All that stuff which was at first supposed to be hidden from the French IRS, was then about to be declared to the insurance companies. If the safe deposit was cracked and they declare, it was OK. But IF this same safe deposit was not, if it stayed intact, and they declare for instance ten kilograms of pure gold to the IRS for nothing... Ha ha ha

Because the bank authorities DID NOT Immediately told the customers which safe was cracked or intact, and those same customers had to declare the most quickly to their insurance so that they can be refunded.

Amusing story for me, but maybe not for them.

And another amusing thing to tell, according to Spaggiari in his book. During the week end, when the whole crew safe cracked, Spaggiari, who owned a photo shop in Nice, had to get out of the bank, out of the safe deposit room, whilst his associates "opened" the safes with cutting torches, and go to his apartment, take a shower, put perfume on his body - don't forget he got out of the sewers - and - guess what - go to his photo shop, meet his customers....before, a few hours later, getting back home, taking a small nap and getting back to the safe deposit room, to continue his harvest, golden harvest.... Authentic. Ha ha ha.

The number 1 reason why I wanted to see this movie is Lila Kedrova, my favorite actress, along with Giulietta Masina, Monica Vitti and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Unfortunately, the filmmakers only offered her a small role as a dying woman, probably inspired by her excellent role in "Zorba the Greek", she having very little screen time. The number 2 reason why I wanted to see the film is José Giovanni, a filmmaker which I admire a lot, author of some films which I like very much: "Last Known Address" (Original title: Dernier domicile connu) (1970), "Hit Man" (Original title: La scoumoune)(1972), "Two Men in Town" (Original title: Deux hommes dans la ville)(1973) and others. Giovanni is also a great writer for several other excellent films such as "The Sicilian Clan" (Original title: Le clan des siciliens)(1969), "Le Trou" (1960), "Classe Tous Risques" (1960), "To Skin a Spy"(Original title: Avec la peau des autres)(1966), "The Last Adventure" (Original title: Les aventuriers)(1967), "Le Deuxième Souffle" (1966). The number 3 reason why I wanted to see the film is the subject itself, robbing a bank in an ingenious way. But, this is not one of Giovanni's best films (he was once a prisoner himself, escaped from a prison). The film is monotonous, 90 of the action we see nothing but how the team of robbers digs the tunnel to reach the safe room of the bank in Nice. The choice of actors was not inspired at all, and I'm not referring to the fact that this time we don't have top stars like Alain Delon or Jean-Paul Belmondo, no. With the exception of André Pousse, who is very good in all the films in this kind of character (scoundrel informant), the others are non-expressive, very weak actors. The most annoying, for me, is the very protagonist, Francis Huster, I consider him totally unsuitable for such a role and, in addition, he resembles Emmanuel Macron, whom I hate with all my heart.

It's difficult, while watching this Giovanni flick ,not to think of Jacques Becker's "le trou" (1959) ,the script of which he wrote.But whereas the heroes of Becker's masterpiece were digging a hole to escape from jail,the "heroes" of " les egouts" are digging a tunnel to rob a bank.The characters are not endearing ,former firebrands ,although the lead rather recalls some kind of "true life" Arsène Lupin ,but a humorless Lupin.One does not see why one should take an interest in those men (and woman).Robin Hoods ,they definitely are not.

NB.Another version was made at about the same time "the great Riviera bank robbery" starring Ian McShane.The two versions were drastically different since that one showed the hero's paramilitary activities.

Splendid, taught, believable (just) and amusing tale, apparently based on a true incident from the criminal life of a certain Albert Spaggiari.

The rag bag of characters are a wonderful change from the more usual clean cut stereotypes and despite this seemingly having no music apart from the start and finish is constantly interesting and simply a riveting watch.

The words 'heist' and 'sewers' are two that would certainly tend to lead me away from a movie but here, even though we spend about an hour under the ground it is just wonderful. Superbly shot with great dialogue and very good performances.