Senza movente

... Nice (impossible to miss that title, hey Hugh and JJ?)

If Philippe Labro isn't a great film noir director like Melville or Corneau, his polars are however entertaining. There are some very fine scenes in "Sans Mobile Apparent", pop and sexy like an italian criminal movie. In fact, it's quite close to giallo, with a terrible secret surrounding the killings in that privileged town of Nice, but these killings are made with a rifle by a sniper. Philippe Labro was mainly a journalist and he covered the most well known sniper story, Kennedy's killing. Labro loved guns and rifles, we feel it in this movie.



What bothers me is that Labro shot that polar as a cinephile, giving Trintignant some Bogart gestures like Godard with Belmondo in "Breathless", and those few new wave quotes are rather painful to me, Trintignant's character should have been more worked, he is too much stereotyped, sometimes being too much without explanation. But the sulfurous 70s atmosphere is great, the girls are sexy (Audran, Sanda, Gravina) and master Morricone's score is sumptuous.

Philippe Labro must love "the Sniper" by Edward Dmytryk.

The movie is based on a book by McBain. Never having read the book I can't comment on the fidelity of the adaptation. However, the movie deals with some themes dear to McBain's heart : the difficulty and responsibility of detective work ; the speed at which a problem can turn into a circus, a stampede or a political affair ; the difficulty of policing a modern city where almost all citizens (good or bad) can hide, morph and reinvent themselves. (If you're living in a large city : would you be willing to swear that the kindly gentleman sitting on a park bench and feeding the pigeons is indeed a retired high school teacher, and not an Israeli spy master or a judo instructor kicked out of the Navy Seals for excessive brutality ?) There is also a nicely satirical edge to the work.

The translation to French society works well and the sun-drenched city of Nice is nicely juxtaposed with the relentlessly "noir" atmosphere. The masterful Morricone music evokes a general sense of wrongness and menace.

It should be noted that Trintignant's inspector Carella is not an agreeable man : he alternates between gruff boorishness and solitary misanthropy, while exuding a smoldering, barely contained anger. One senses that any pimply teenager foolish enough to go "oink, oink" in his vicinity would become the owner of a bullet through the brain in two minutes flat. As an approach to community police work this would not be entirely without merit - but still.

Good solid thriller with fine central performance from Jean Louis Trintignant and very decent score from Morricone. Taught, interesting, involving and amusing from start to finish this good looking film has much to offer including some strange casting and an understated but sleazy background.

Erich Segal, writer of Love Story and person responsible for the screen play of Yellow Submarine(!) plays an off the wall astrologer and ex-wife of Trintignant and then wife of Chabrol turns up with bulging bust looking extremely sexy. Singer Sacha Distel is another surprising performer and does well as a TV presenter. The action takes place in and around Nice and more particularly around its harbour as a sniper begins to kill, seemingly at random, or 'Without Apparent Motive'.

I saw this for the first time recently aft reading a glowing review by Coventry.

Well, this movie is indeed a solid thriller with a good mystery.

The plot in short - A police detective investigates a series of unexplained killings of unconnected people by a mystery sniper. One of the victim is an ex girlfriend of the detective who tries very hard to find a missing link between all these murders. Though the detective have linked the victims to money laundering, narcotics and prostitution, nothing adds up to a motive for murdering them.

The movie has good locations n a decent musical score but the performances are top notch.

I like the short hair, slim babe, Carla Gravina.

Lemme check out more movies starring her.

I had seen this film in a cinema, years ago, when I was a youngster. Now, I have bought the video in a 2nd hand shop, and...

I has been delighted again with:

a) The plot: good thriller about a snipper who kills several high society persons.

b) The actors: Jean-Louis Trintigant is superb as a policeman,engaged in a difficult case. And he runs top speed...

c) The music: Morricone's score is perfect. It goes along very well and underline top moments.

To summarize: highly commandable film.