Deux Hommes dans la Ville [Two Men in Town] [Two Against the Law] **** (1973, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Mimsy Farmer, Victor Lanoux, Michel Bouquet) – Classic Movie Review 12,323

Deux Hommes dans la Ville (1973, Alain Delon).

José Giovanni’s distinguished 1973 French crime drama Deux Hommes dans la Ville [Two Against the Law] boasts a remarkable cast headed by Jean Gabin and Alain Delon.

Writer-director José Giovanni’s distinguished 1973 French crime and social drama Deux Hommes dans la Ville [Two Men in Town] [Two Against the Law] boasts a remarkable cast headed by its stars Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Mimsy Farmer, Victor Lanoux, and Michel Bouquet. It is a heart-rending portrait of an ex-con desperately struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.

French New Wave icon Delon stars as Gino Strabliggi, a recently released prisoner who finds that the actions of his gangster friends and the vendetta of a sinister evil old police officer, Inspector Goitreau (Michel Bouquet) who arrested him and got him jailed 10 years earlier, make it hard for him to stay on the right side of the law. However, he has one man on his side, wise old prison social worker Germain Cazeneuve (Gabin), who gets him a steady job in town as a printer, and also the loyal loving Lucy (Mimsy Farmer), a bank employee, who moves into his flat.

But then, when Gino stops for petrol, some old associates spot him, try to re-recruit him and give him the address of their hideout. And an increasingly frustrated Goitreau starts harassing Gino, his loyal print shop boss (Guido Alberti) and his girl friend.

Deux Hommes dans la Ville is an incredibly eloquent and moving appeal against capital punishment (incredibly, the guillotine was still in use in France) and the harsh extremes of the French policing and judicial system, and its heartless officials. Gabin, Delon and Michel Bouquet make every look and nuance count in three tour-de-force performances. With serious work to tackle, they show their true class as actors. Giovanni writes clearly and passionately, with credible and engaging characters, plotting and dialogue, and films confidently and stylishly in early Seventies fashion. Sometimes, the actors just have looks to perform, and Giovanni stops his film to relish these moments.

Delon, always at home with such film noir-style material, gives a sympathetic portrait of an impetuous but basically decent ex-con battling against the odds to stay straight. He is tremendous in a difficult role, and shares exceptional screen chemistry with Gabin, brilliant exponent of the calm voice of reason and wisdom, miles away from his old gangster roles. With its hints of Les Misérables and its picture of a corrupt world where most of the good guys are no better than the bad guys, or actually worse, this is a highly compelling Euro crime movie and social drama, sharply shot by Jean-Jacques Tarbès and notably scored by Philippe Sarde, with an exciting, extremely moving and effective finish.

The 24-year-old Gérard Depardieu, who was to become Gabin’s successor in French movies, briefly plays a long-haired young tearaway truant gangster at the start of the film, in the year before his breakout role in Bertrand Blier’s comedy Les Valseuses [Going Places].

The Gino Strabliggi character is the equivalent of ex-convict Jean Valjean seeking redemption in Les Misérables and the relentlessly dogged evil police Inspector Goitreau is the equivalent of Inspector Javert. Michel Bouquet pays Inspecteur Javert to Lino Ventura’s Jean Valjean in the 1982 film of Les Misérables, directed by Robert Hossein, who also directed the original 1980 Paris production of the musical.

Giovanni knew the world he is portraying. José Giovanni [Joseph Damiani] (22 June 1923 – 24 April 2004) was a former collaborationist and criminal sentenced to death at one time, who often drew his inspiration from personal experience or from real gangsters, such as Abel Danos in his 1960 film Classe tous risques, Damiani escaped the guillotine when his sentence was commuted by President Auriol on 3 March 1949 to hard labour for life. President Coty remitted the sentence on 30 November 1956 and Damiani aged 33 was released from prison on 4 December 1956 after serving 11½ years.

He was rescued by a talent for writing. Just out of jail, Damiani wrote his first novel, The Break (Le Trou), as José Giovanni, telling of his own attempted escape in 1947. His lawyer encouraged him to write and took the book to author/ editor Roger Nimier, who got it published by Éditions Gallimard. It was filmed as Le Trou by Jacques Becker in 1960, after which Giovanni wrote 33 screenplays and directed 15 films.

He was an extremely controversial figure, a staunch opponent of the death penalty but a believer in personal vengeance who spent time visiting prisons in his last years.

Also in the cast are Cécile Vassort, Ilaria Occhini, Guido Alberti, Malka Ribowska, Christine Fabréga, Robert Castel, Albert Augier, Maurice Barrier, Armand Mestral, Roland Monod, Dominique Zardi, Jacques Monod, Bernard Giraudeau, Bernard Musson and Gabriel Briand.

The film was remade in 2014 as Two Men in Town with Forest Whitaker, Harvey Keitel, Ellen Burstyn, Luis Guzmán and Brenda Blethyn.

Deux Hommes dans la Ville (1973, Jean Gabin,).

The cast are Jean Gabin as Germain Cazeneuve, Alain Delon as Gino Strabliggi, Mimsy Farmer as Lucie, Victor Lanoux as Marcel, Cécile Vassort as Évelyne Cazeneuve, Ilaria Occhini as Sophie Strabliggi, Guido Alberti as printing shop owner, Malka Ribowska as Gino’s lawyer, Christine Fabréga as Geneviève Cazeneuve, Gérard Depardieu as young gangster, Robert Castel as André Vaultier, Bernard Giraudeau as Frédéric Cazeneuve, and Michel Bouquet as Inspector Goitreau.

Michel Bouquet (6 November 1925 – 13 April 2022).

Alain Delon (8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,323

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