Death of a Corrupt Man (1977)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Touches You

As Good As It Gets

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Stan Getz's Bossa Nova music matches perfectly Alain Delon's melancholic eyes and nostalgic gaze, and suits the busy Paris nightlife in the seventies. Michel Audiard's dialogues are as punchy as always ("Order and disorder are two plagues that threaten humanity. Corruption disgusts me, and virtue gives me chills"). It is the kind of movie where one can hear the pictures and see the music, as Godard would put it.

"Death of a Corrupt Man" from 1977 is a French film produced by Alain Delon's company, starring Delon, Ornella Muti, Stephanie Audran, Maurice Ronet, Klaus Kinski, and Delon's companion at that time, Mirelle Darc.A deputy, Philippe Dubaye (Ronet) gets his old friend Xavier Maréchal (Delon) up in the dead of night. He says he has just killed racketeer, Serrano, who had many political connections. Serrano had proof of Dubaye's involvement in corruption in high places and was ready to use them against him. Xav agrees to give his friend an alibi, which is not believed by the police. Everyone wants those documents and figure that Xav must have them. There are multiple car chases and attempts on his life and that of Dubaye's girlfriend (Muti).Good film that is somewhat timely today, with all its talk of politicians stealing, people in government just in it for the money, blackmail, etc. Delon, who in this dubbing sounds like Robert Conrad, is strong in his role, as are Kinski and Audran. Ornella Muti is positively gorgeous. Mirelle Darc was only in the film because of Delon; her part could have been cut and as it was, she only had a few lines. And how about this - an Alain Delon film with no love scene. Dubbed on top of it, which I hate.Delon favored this type of role, as evidenced by the films he produced. I saw him later in a documentary done 37 years later. Everyone recognized him, at 81, and wanted a photo with him. He was very obliging.

This film from the seventies, MORT D'UN POURRI (DEATH OF A CORRUPT MAN), was produced by and stars Alain Delon , who was remarkably handsome and talented, as everyone knows (or at least, as everyone knew, now that so much time has passed). It is a spectacularly well directed film by Georges Lautner, and the cinematography is equally stunning. The film is one of those French classics which are being restored nowadays in France and issued as Blu-Rays, accompanied by a DVD for those who cannot play Blu-Rays. This is one of the many such films which have now been issued with English subtitles. The film goes more deeply into the profundity and pervasiveness of French political corruption than most of the many French films on that subject. An outstanding modern example of the genre is the hair-raising TELL NO ONE (2006, see my review). The French are obsessed, and for good reason, with the corruption which pervades their government and society like rich seams of black coal running through a strip mine. So pervasive is corruption in France at the highest levels that one is tempted to say: 'There could be no recognisable France without corruption.' A morally clean French Government is as inconceivable as is a cesspool filled with pure spring water. Whereas political thrillers in America tend to portray corruption as an aberration, French films more often portray it as an intrinsic rot, like a leper displaying his disintegrating limb. Delon's old chum Philippe Dubaye, a Deputy in the French Parliament, comes to him in the middle of the night, while Delon is in bed with his adoring girlfriend (Mirielle Darc), and says something really terrible has happened. He has killed another Deputy in the Parliament. Without hesitation, Delon offers to help clean up the mess, but the mess becomes messier and more people are killed, as the ripples of corruption widen on the surface of the political pond. Every which way Delon turns, there are people being murdered, commencing with his close friend Philippe. After this, he becomes obsessed with discovering who killed him, which leads him into increasingly desperate dangers. He then befriends Phlippe's girlfriend, played by Ornetta Muti, who had the biggest and most alluring bedroom eyes in the film business at that time. When she looks at a man, he feels the heat as if someone has turned on the grill. Muti then effortlessly dominates the screen with all of her emanations of sex appeal, with the camera lovingly dwelling on her simmering looks. More and more outrageous attempts are made to try and murder Delon, who keeps scraping through impossible ambushes, such as cars falling on top of him. The dialogue was written by Michel Audiard, who also was a director himself. The twists and turns and multiple spiders' webs multiply faster than a spider can scuttle up a wall. The sinister air of menace is greatly heightened by the subtle performance of Klaus Kinski as one of the most powerful bad guys. This certainly is a cracking yarn, and is real edge of the seat stuff.

"The Death of a Corrupt Man" is an outstanding French thriller with elements of the political and psych thriller, gangster movies and the typical conspiracy films of the seventies. Casted with some of the best European actors of that time - Alain Delon, Ornela Muti, Stephane Audran, Mireille Darc and madman Klaus Kinski - it tells the story of a big conspiracy with a corrupt politician getting rid of all his opponents. Now it's lawyer Alain Delon's turn to fight the power. Of course he's becoming the target of some killers soon, a wild hunt begins where several people lose their lives until Delon finds the real villain. The pacing is fast, the plot twisted and thrilling, and the really good actors and clever direction add much impact to this powerful thriller with some furious action scenes including a great truck chase. If you get a video or DVD copy of that film or find it in your TV guide, watch it!