Borsalino **** (1970, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Catherine Rouvel) – Classic Movie Review 5553

The stylish 1970 Thirties-set French gangster film Borsalino is the ideal vehicle for Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo in their prime, as petty criminals Roch Siffredi and François Capella, who graduate into big-time mobsters down Marseilles way.

Director Jacques Deray’s stylish 1970 Thirties-set French crime movie Borsalino is the ideal vehicle for Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo in their prime.

Delon and Belmondo play petty criminals Roch Siffredi and François Capella, who graduate into big-time mobsters down Marseilles way, in this expert French gangster film, made with fluidity, a sense of humour and an even greater sense of style.

Designed by art director François de Lamothe, this is an extraordinarily handsome production with lovely Eastmancolor cinematography by Jean-Jacques Tarbès, a dazzling display of Thirties costumes (designed by Jacques Fonteray) and artefacts (set decoration by Robert Christidès), as well as a cute and catchy jazzy music score by Claude Bolling.

It is best seen in the subtitled version as the dubbed version spoils it.

Alain Delon in Borsalino (1970).

Also in the cast are Michel Bouquet, Catherine Rouvel, Françoise Christophe, Corinne Marchand, Daniel Ivernel, Nicole Calfan, Hélène Rémy, Mario David, Lionel Vitrant, Arnoldo Foà and Mireille Darc in an uncredited cameo as une prostituée/ a prostitute.

The screenplay by Jacques Deray, Jean-Claude Carrière, Claude Sautet and Jean Cau is based on the book The Bandits of Marseilles by Eugène Saccomano, and based on the lives of real-life gangsters Paul Carbone and François Spirito, who collaborated with Nazi Germany during the occupation of France in World War Two, but fictionalised and Nazi collaboration is not mentioned.

Delon found the story of Carbone and Spirito in a crime book he was reading about French gangsters from 1900 to 1970, and produced the film as a vehicle with Jean-Paul Belmondo. It was to be called Carbone and Spirito, but objections were made to using the names of real gangsters, so the characters were fictionalised and the title was taken from the Borsalino company, makers of fedora hats since the late 19th century but most popular in the 1920s to 1940s, the era of the film. It prompted a revival in the sales of Borsalino fedora hats.

The film was shot in and around Marseilles, with interiors shot in the studio in Paris. It is one of the most expensive French films ever made, with finance mostly from Paramount Pictures. Its huge popularity in France and elsewhere in Europe was not repeated in the US, where Belmondo and Delon did not break through as popular stars.

Unfortunately Delon and Belmondo fell out. They had to have the same number of close-ups under the terms of their contracts, which prompted Delon to dye his hair black. Delon’s producer Pierre Caro, said: ‘I think Belmondo was afraid from the first to make a picture with Alain. He demanded the same number of close ups. Alain had to cancel a lot of his best scenes because they made him look better than Belmondo.’ Belmondo wanted top billing and was annoyed that the title card ‘an Alain Delon Production’ appeared before his name in the credits and sued Delon in court over how their names were billed. Delon said: ‘We are still what you in America call pals or buddies. But we are not friends. There is a difference. He was my guest in the film but still he complained. I like him as an actor but, as a person, he’s a bit different. I think his reaction was a stupid reaction.’

Runtime: 126 minutes.

Delon returned in 1974 for a sequel, Borsalino and Co [Blood on the Streets], also directed by Jacques Deray.

French cinema icon Mireille Darc, who died on 28 August 2017, aged 79, worked frequently with Alain Delon (also For a Cop’s Hide 1981) and director Georges Lautner. She was Delon’s longtime companion. Jacques Chirac awarded her the Légion d’honneur.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5553

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