8
The Tar Heel
Thursday, July 22, 1971
orsalino sharp, f ashionable, witty
by Brace Mann
Feature Editor
. Riding the crest of the New Wave and
its parodies of 1930's American gangster
films (such as Francois Truffaut's "Shoot
the Piano Player"), comes "Borsalino," a
sharp, fashionable, witty French film
which not only boasts of all the typical
gangster-genre cliches but also of rich,
intelligent acting and luscious period
settings.
Jean-Paul Belmondo, with his
Walter-Matthau scowl and off-the-cuff
nonchalance, plays Francois Capella, a
cocky, small-time pool shark in 1930's
Marseilles who, living by the maxim
'There's no such thing as luck," contrives
a good time by doing small-paying jobs
such as kidnapping horses and rigging
boxing matches. His mind's horizons
appear to be as low as his moll's neckline
until Rock Siffredi -played with
Bogartian detachment and verve by
slick-haired blue-eyed Alain
Delon-becomes Capella's partner in
crime after a fight over possession of the
moll, Lola (Catherine Rouvel).
Siffredi's ambitious yet florid way of
doing things-shown at the beginning of
the film when he emerges free from
prison in a very ratty suit, gets into an
awaiting Citroen, and a splice-second later
jumps from the car in an expensive,
slender-waisted suit and a slick Borsalino
hat -fires the duo into constantly
ascending the ladder of the Marseilles
underworld hierarchy, removing the
competition as they go. In a series of
almost 35 fights, they displace, with more
finess, flair and flamboyance than
Edward G. Robinson ever did, Poli
(Andre Bollet), the gargantuan co-leader
of the Marseilles syndicate; Marello
(Arnold Foa), the calculating other
co-leader who keeps a boa-constrictor as a
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pet; Dancer (Christian de Tiliere), a
weasel-like choreographer who squeals -onoe
too often; and Rinaldi (Michel
Bouquet), an opportunistic lawyer with
more ambition than conscience.
Thoughout 'the film Siffredi leads the
charge to discourage anyone who might
"block his sun," and it is his drive, his
accumulation of power and riches (a
Leleu staircase, priceless art, a tailored
white tuxedo with white satin striped
pants) and his ultimate dissatisfaction
with it all which calls for the dissolution
and destruction at the end.
Credit for creating this polished,'
well-photographed film belongs to
director Jacques Deray who wraps the
entire production in authenticity-34 old
cars, period dresses and suits, cloche hats
and allusions to happenings in
mobster-run Chicago of the 1930's-an
attempt to give our senses entertaining
details to keep up with.
Credit also goes to the excellent script,
based on a true story of '30's Marseilles
bandits, and composed by a quartet of
wits: Jean Cau, Claude Sautet, Jacques
Deray and Jean-Claude Carriere.
Although the dialogue has its share of
cliche lines ("Get him out of here" and
'There's always some danger with women
around"), there are still plenty of campy
scenes such as the dance when Capella
tangoes with a fishing magnate's wife. In
timing with the tango's heavy accents,
Capella asks what perfume she is wearing.
"It's called "God Forbid'," she replies.
"I'm so afraid of smelling like fish."
This whimsical, droll tone does much
to offset the admittedly graphic violence
so necessary to the gangster-film genre.
Capella and Siffredi toy with machine
guns, and bloody scenes-the burning of
the beef warehouse, Capella's drubbing
by Poli, Poli's own death in a revolving
door-naturally develop for those who
aspire to be "Kings of Marseilles."
Also helping to take away a bit of this
violent sting is Claude Boiling's incredibly
carefree and impish, ragtime piano theme
which is such an integral part of the
movie that it changes dynamics, key and
mode with every modification of the
immediate situation of the "heroes."
All of this craftsmanship and beauty
for eye and ear, however, does not hide
Deray's one miscalculation, pace. Moving
rapidly at the beginning, the film slows
by the end to an escargot-pace, which is
unfortunate because the ending is so
inherently weak, being no more than an
exclamation that "crime doesn not pay."
Needless to say, though, such a
fragmented finish cannot . erase the
success of earlier scenes.
The dialogue is so breezy, the parody
so knife-edged and clean, the music so
fresh, and the acting so stunning that one
can only tip his Borsalino to Director
Deray and his group for a job well done.
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