After some difficulties in processing the transaction (from the sites side) led to a delay in the Krimi film The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle (1963) being sold on eBay,I wanted to thank the buyer for being patient by including a bonus gift. Taking a look at the mountain of French films I had waiting to view, I spotted a Jose Giovanni title which sounded like a good fit,which led to me throwing the boomerang.

View on the film:

Putting the opening credits against what turns out to be the final freeze frame, co-writer/(with Alain Delon and Monica Venturini ) directing auteur Jose Giovanni & cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn also bookend the title with dips into the Italian Crime genre, via the opening drug-fuelled murder of a cop being shot in a stylishly hazy first person view, and a closing high-speed break out ending on a slow-motion splint across the border. In the middle of these bookends, Giovanni continues the clinical dissection motif which covers his entire work, with tightly held two-shots unmasking the regret Eddy has for being behind bars, and Jacques regret for having to go back to the old ways.

Holding back from gangster thrills, the writers instead drill into the tensely coiled drama of Jacques attempt to hold onto the new life he is trying to create, as a tug of war unfolds between the press uncovering his pass thanks to son Eddy's crime,and Jacques proving to himself that he is not the gangster of old. Looking at the choices placed in front of him,Alain Delon gives an icy turn as Jacques,with Delon digging into Jacques attempt to do things by the book,until his old life boomerangs.