DEATH OF A CORRUPT MAN

(Mort d’un pourri)

CINEMA
TRIBUTE TO ALAIN DELON
RENOIR
Thriller– Digitally restored

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2
11:00 am (Screening ends at 1:05 pm)

Presented in association with:
Pathé Films
The Festival Agency

Theatrical Premiere Digitally Restored Version – Tribute to Alain Delon | France | 1977 | Political Thriller | 120 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Georges Lautner
Written by: Georges Lautner, Michel Audiard, Claude Sautet
Produced by: Alain Delon, Norbert Saada
Cinematography: Henri Decaë
Film Editing: Michelle David
Original Score: Philippe Sarde (performed by Stan Getz)
Cast: Alain Delon (Xavier Maréchal), Ornella Muti (Valérie), Stéphane Audran (Christiane), Mireille Darc (Françoise), Maurice Ronet (Philippe Dubaye), Michel Aumont (Police Chief Moreau), Jean Bouise (Police Chief Pernais), Daniel Ceccaldi (Lucien Lacor), Julien Guiomar (Fondari), Klaus Kinski (Nicolas Tomski),
International Sales: Pathé Films

Xavier Maréchal’s doorbell suddenly rings at 5 a.m. It’s his old friend, Senator Philippe Dubaye, with disturbing news. He’s just killed Serrano, a mobster with big-time political connections. Xavier instantly offers to serve as his pal’s alibi. However, the plot thickens when everyone on both sides of the law is suddenly after Serrano’s diary — the extortion records he used to blackmail Dubaye, and which have financed his rise to underworld kingpin. The magnificent Alain Delon earned his second César Award nomination for his depiction of Maréchal, apparently the only honest man in a Paris teeming with corruption, in George Lautner‘s moody 1977 film noir. The sultry jazz score by Philippe Sarde, featuring the lyrical tenor sax of the great Stan Getz, weaves its way through the film as an added bonus.

One of the most charismatic leading men ever to grace the silver screen, Alain Delon appeared in 107 films, starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and ’70s, and worked with many of the most celebrated directors of his time. More than just a pretty face — although, there’s no denying his iconic beauty, nor the charm he oozed from the screen — he earned enormous critical acclaim for his modulated, at times searing, performances. He won a César Award for Best Actor for his performance in Bertrand Blier’s Notre histoire (1984) and has earned honorary lifetime achievement awards at film festivals worldwide, from Berlin to Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Taormina and Marrakesh. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Male Newcomer for Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963), and for a César Award as Best Actor for his riveting performance in Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein (1976). A mere handful of his other titles include Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1969); Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967), The Red Circle (1970) and A Cop (1972); René Clément’s Purple Noon (1960); Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclipse (1962); Henri Verneuil’s The Sicilian Clan (1969); and Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave (1990). Alain Delon passed away, at the age of 88, on August 18th.

Between 1958 and 2000, George Lautner directed 45 feature films, often collaborating on his screenplays with brilliant dialogist Michel Audiard. He is best known for his comedies, like Les Tontons flingueurs (1963), starring Lino Ventura, and the espionage-thriller Le Professionel (1981), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.