One of the most magnetic and prominent French actors of the post-war
era, Alain Delon’s first outstanding success was in Rene Clement's
stylish 1960 thriller Plein Soleil. An international hit that made the
most of Delon’s unique blend of menace and charisma, the film cast him
as a murderous American traveling abroad. Based on a novel by Patricia
Highsmith, Plein Soleil was remade in 1999 as the star-studded The
Talented Mr Ripley.
Delon was utilised quite brilliantly by Antonioni as a brash young
stockbroker in the enigmatic L’Eclisse, a cornerstone of 1960s European
cinema. Thereafter Delon struck up perhaps the most profitable director
relationship of his career, working with Jean-Pierre Melville on a
number of pictures including Le Samouraï, Le Cercle Rouge, and
Melville’s final work, Un Flic (included here), perhaps the director’s
most perfect synthesis of style and suspense. All hugely popular with
European audiences, these films honed Delon’s existentialist loner
persona. Delon’s work was also typified by his complex portrayals of
the troubled cops exemplified by Flic Story, and the killers and sexual
deviants typified by Alain Jessua’s disturbing and audacious Traitement
de Choc.
Plein Soleil (1960)
Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith (who also wrote Strangers on a
Train), René Clément’s striking study from 1960 of a glamorous and
complex psychopath features a career-defining turn from a young,
beautiful and ultra-cool Alain Delon. In a taut, expertly crafted
thriller Delon is Ripley, an emissary sent by a wealthy American
industrialist to save his son, errant playboy Philippe Greenleaf
(Maurice Ronet), from a life of decadence in Rome. Insinuating himself
into Greenleaf’s existence, Ripley practises his signature and dresses
up in his clothes before attempting to steal his life, his girl and,
most importantly, his money.
Remade in 1999 as the star-studded The Talented Mr Ripley, Plein Soleil
is an engrossing meditation on transference and deceit. Highly rated by
the famously critical Highsmith, the film is a genuinely stylish
original.
L’Eclisse (1962)
Alongside L'Avventura and La Notte, L'Eclisse completes director
Michelangelo Antonioni’s ambitious 60s trilogy on doomed relationships
in a fractured world.
The tale involves a woman, Vittoria (Monica Vitti, The Red Desert), who
has just suffered the break-up of an imperfect relationship with a
staunch intellectual (Francisco Rabal). Piero (Alain Delon, The
Leopard), a brash young stockbroker, casts his romantic gaze in
Vittoria's direction and Vittoria’s resolve gradually relents,
precipitating a tentative affair. Yet their innermost fears play upon
them in ways that go against an honest expression of their love - and
against a lasting relationship.
The winner of a Special Jury prize at Cannes, this exquisitely
performed and photographed drama refines Antonioni’s thematic
preoccupation with the difficulties of communication and the
impossibility of love. A masterpiece of technique and composition,
L’Eclisse is a challenging and enigmatic work and a cornerstone of
1960s European cinema.
Un Flic (1972)
Made the year before his death, Jean-Pierre Melville’s final film and
his third with Alain Delon after Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge is the
director’s most extreme and underrated gangster movie. Parisian police
commissioner Coleman (Delon) is not a happy man, but he does what he
can to get through each day. Coleman finds solace in his affair with
Cathy (Catherine Deneuve), who also happens to be the girlfriend of
Coleman’s friend, Simon (Richard Crenna), the head of a gang of daring
criminals. As the commissioner’s pursuit of the gang intensifies, so
does the rivalry between the two men.
Beginning with a remarkable bank robbery on a deserted beach front and
also featuring a helicopter heist shot in real time, Un Flic is perhaps
the director’s most perfect synthesis of style and suspense. A
wonderfully fatalistic study of loss and deception and a distillation
of Melville’s interest in the codes of loyalty and honour, the film
marks a fitting epitaph to one of the finest careers in contemporary
cinema.
Traitement De Choc (1973)
One of the more unusual entries in Delon’s estimable filmography,
Traitement de choc is an effective psychological thriller that also
offers a timely comment on medical practice and the exploitation of the
poor for the benefit of the wealthy. Hélène Masson (Annie Girardot,
Hidden), a stressed-out retail manager takes up a course of therapy at
a centre run by the secretive Dr Devilers (Alain Delon). At first,
Hélène is encouraged by Devilers’ apparent success with his other
patients but soon becomes concerned when one of her fellow patients
commits suicide. Later, one of the Portuguese serving boys disappears
after asking her for help and Hélène soon realises that something is
seriously wrong…
Taking a break from the existential loners from both sides of the law
with which he is so closely associated, Delon is quite chilling as the
aptly-named doctor, displaying a complete indifference to moral issues
whilst oozing a seductive and fatally irresistible charm.
Flic Story (1975)
Based on the memoir of French police detective Roger Borniche, Flic
Story grippingly recreates a violent post-war crime spree that shocked
a nation still reeling from Nazi occupation.
When Emile Buisson (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Three Colours Red) France’s
most notorious criminal escapes from a mental asylum, his bloody
rampage has politicians and the press demanding results. Paris cop
Roger Borniche (Alain Delon, Le Samouraï) gets the thankless job of
finding Buisson and either bringing him in or stopping him dead.
Through rooftop pursuits, alley stakeouts, nightclub showdowns, and car
to car gun battles, Borniche, a stylish and scrupulously ethical “flic”
(French slang for “cop”), is forced to break the rules he usually only
bends.
Distinctly Melvillian in its moral ambiguity and glacial,
existentialist tone, director Jacques Deray’s (Borsalino and Co.)
blending of a suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller with a frank,
true-crime exposé make Flic Story one of the most notable French film
noirs of the period.
L’Eclisse: Interview with Jose Mouré, author on the films of Antonioni, Traitement du Choc: Interview with Director Alain Jessua, Un Flic: Interview with Florence Moncorgé Gabin and Jean François Delon
Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuce, Annie Girardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant Rene Clement, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Pierre Melville
530 mins
1960 - 1975
None specified
English
5
2 - will only play on UK / European DVD player or multi region
player
Usually despatched within 5 working days
