Alain Delon's Pour la peau d'un flic (For The Death of a Cop) (1981)

Alain Delon is Choucas, an ex-cop turned private investigator in Paris. One morning a new client, Isabelle Pigot (Annick Alane), seeks his services: her young-adult daughter, Marthe, has been missing for a month, and Isabelle believes the police are not working diligently. Marthe didn't leave on her own free will, believes Isabelle, as she had a good life with a stable position working at an institute for the blind. Marthe is also blind. Before Isabelle can write a check, Choucas gets a visit from Coccioli (Daniel Ceccaldi), a police inspector who tells Choucas just to take this lady's check and say that he cannot find Marthe. Subsequent to taking her check, Choucas gets another visitor, Pradier (Gérard Hérold) who tells Choucas that Marthe is with his friend and has gone to another country. Pradier isn't credible, and Choucas doesn't believe his story. Isabelle summons Choucas for a meeting at the open-air Trocadero plaza where she is killed. After a couple subsequent attempts on his own life, Delon's Choucas realizes that he is not working on a simple missing-person case in Alain Delon's directorial debut, Pour la peau d'un flic (For The Death of a Cop) (1981).By this point in his career, Delon was developing his own projects and he reunites with screenwriter, Christopher Frank (who penned the previous Parisian crime thriller with Delon, Three Men to Kill (3 hommes à abattre) the year before) for Pour la peau d'un flic. Interestingly, the film indirectly serves as a representative transitional film at the beginning of the decade. Delon is clearly the attraction in Pour la peau d'un flic, and his camera rarely leaves his character during its run time. While the film is clearly intended to be modern, Delon uses cinematically outdated investigation techniques (Choucas actually has to hit the streets and find clues; interview and interact with people; and speculate and take a chance on where to go next after finding a clue). Not only would the 1980s see technology become more focal in action cinema (bigger weapons with even bigger explosions), technology in cinema would become embraced by its investigators, forever changing their style and depiction. The classic and iconic actor imbues Pour la peau d'un flic with an old-school private-eye narrative, a classic and sometimes light comedic subplot, and action scenes, honed from repetition during the entire decade of the 1970s.

The simple missing-person case doesn't stay simple in Pour la peau d'un flic, as it grows much wider in scope, implicating a bigger conspiracy, only growing slightly incredulous at times. Delon's Choucas enlists his good friend, Haymann (Michel Auclair) to help him in the investigation when Choucas becomes a target himself. The two veteran French actors feel like close friends, and the intimacy the two share is genuine. The majority of their scenes are dialogue,as each bounces ideas and questions off the other as to how to proceed in the investigation. Then there are really clever scenes with the two, as when Choucas has a subdued suspect before him, he tells Haymann to get a hammer. Haymann just slightly nods, well-familiar as to what Choucas is going to do to the man. When Choucas has a gun pointed at him and looks as if his adversary has the upper hand, it is Haymann who pops in right on time in aiding Delon's character.The real attraction besides Delon, in my opinion, in Pour la peau d'un flic is the character Charlotte, Choucas's secretary, played by Anne Parillaud. About a decade later, she would blow cinema's door off the hinges in Luc Besson's nearly pitch-perfect La Femme Nikita (1990). Her screen presence is quite powerful, and one gets the impression while watching Pour la peau d'un flic that she is underused, despite appearing in nearly the entire picture. The romantic subplot involving Delon and Parillaud is well developed, as the events become more intense in the picture, the two begin to reveal their feelings for each other. A lot of the humor in the film comes from these scenes, and unfortunately her character's English-dubbing (of the version that I saw from an HK DVD) is terrible and most of it is lost. Delon adeptly knows how charismatic and beautiful the young actress is and doesn't spare her close-ups. Parillaud is a fantastic actress and she brings more energy to the film than the action scenes. The classic romantic comedy is dated, yet both Delon and Parillaud are able to carry it with their charisma and chemistry alone.I've seen seemingly a million crime films, and despite the familiarity of the narrative of Pour la peau d'un flic, I really cannot tire watching Delon acting super cool and taking on the bad guys. Even dubbed in English, when he makes smart-aleck remarks during a high-speed car chase, Delon is cool. When sitting in a cafe and having coffee and smoking Gitanes, Delon is cool. He's so cool that he cast this beautiful young actress in a small and welcomed part:Pour la peau d'un flic shows a lot of the magic of the waning days of this cinema. A must-see for Delon fans (and Parillaud fans and don't be surprised when it's her that stays with you after viewing).

Jacques Deray's Three Men to Kill (1980)

Jacques Deray and Alain Delon made nine films together with a few of my favorites being The Swimming Pool (1970) with Delon alongside beautiful and talented Romy Schneider, The Gang (1977), a period-piece gangster picture which sees Delon get amazingly animated at times, and this one, Three Men to Kill (1980). In an opening sequence at a chateau outside of Paris, a group of old white men in dapper suits are watching a promotional film for a jet fighter with a new missile capability. The group concludes their meeting with the possibility of a sale of the armaments, but there are grumbles from three of the group as to the possible quality of the goods. Nonetheless, they disband peacefully as the evening has grown late. As one of the group leaves the chateau en route to Paris, he passes a slow-moving car which Michel Gerfaut (Delon) is driving. Gerfaut waves the car by and then allows another speeding car to pass him. Gerfaut stops when he sees the first car crashed against a tree and takes the injured driver to the hospital. Gerfaut does not know the identity of the driver, nor did the man say anything to him. Gerfaut leaves the hospital without giving his name and drives to his poker game in Paris. The injured man is dead from not an accident but from two bullets, and the two men who killed the driver now know Gerfaut's involved (found his identification in his car).

Gerfaut gambles the night away at his poker game, and in the morning at her Paris flat, sexy Bea (Dalila Di Lazzaro) awaits his return. Bea has recently met Gerfaut and knows little about him. He's aloof and quiet, but Bea finds his demeanor endearing. Gerfaut is taking her to a coastal beach community that morning to meet his mother. After the two arrive and Bea is sunbathing on the beach, Gerfaut goes for a swim. He is attacked in the water by two swimmers and is nearly beaten and drowned. Gerfaut narrowly escapes the two's clutches but says nothing to Bea about his attack. While the two are at a cafe having a drink, Gerfaut gets a telephone call at the bar while Bea leaves to go shopping. In a fantastic sequence, Gerfaut takes two steps down the stairs to the alcove where his telephone call is waiting. Deciding that the area appears too opportunistic for an awaiting foe, he takes his call topside. No answer. Gerfaut knows now the beach attack was not random. Gerfaut learns that three men have been killed since last night: one of them was the injured driver whom he helped to the hospital. Leaving Bea at the beachside, Gerfaut heads back to Paris for his next move.

At first blush, Three Men to Kill seems very traditional and typical, as does much of Deray's cinema. However, Deray often creates films which lull the viewer into normalcy and the expected, only to make subtle changes along the way to the traditional narrative to make everything slightly off kilter and different. Gerfaut, upon his arrival to Paris, sees a close friend who is a police officer. His friend offers to escort him home and help him find out the identity of the men after him. In a really masterful and manipulative sequence, Gerfaut sips his Scotch from his seemingly safe Paris apartment. The doorbell rings, and when the police officer goes to look in the peephole, he sees his last image: a bullet. Delon's Gerfaut grabs the dead officer's automatic and gives chase (in the obligatory but very cool car chase).

The joke (or mystery) behind Three Men to Kill is really Gerfaut's identity. As he takes advances on his would-be killers, the viewer asks who's the cat and who's the mouse? Gerfaut seemingly knows his killers' next move before they do. Is it just luck? Gerfaut makes a joke before sitting at his poker game that maybe being a Good Samaritan and helping the injured driver would give him some luck. Are the killers inept? No, the three initial hits are ice-cold and professional and clean, Gerfaut was the deux ex machina in the plan. Even Bea, when questioned about what she knows about Gerfaut, can't relay much: his past is a mystery. She only knows that she is in love with him and that he is a very good gambler. So Deray's joke on the viewer is guessing how good of a gambler Gerfaut is.I love the action scenes in Three Men to Kill and my man-crush for Delon does not wane. His trademark stoic and icy appearance becomes a true asset to his character, and Deray, his frequent collaborator, uses Delon's acting ability well. The peephole hit is a terrific sequence, as are some of the subsequent kills, including a very, very cold and intense one in a hospital bathroom. A good bit of subtle humor is thrown into mix, concerning Gerfaut's identity, and it's a welcome foil to the sometimes intense sequences. Dalila Di Lazzaro's Bea is a wonderful accompanying character to Gerfaut: she's easy-going and breezy but deeply loves Gerfaut and really shows it in a particular scene. Three Men to Kill escalates to its totally unexpected conclusion, and I love the final scene, which just put a big smile on my face. Deray's style and dark humor is not for everyone, but I think the underrated director is quite talented. The unassuming Three Men to Kill ranks as a Delon favorite. See it.

Duccio Tessari's Tony Arzenta (1973)

Alain Delon is Tony Arzenta, who in a very well-done opening sequence, kisses his son and wishes him a happy birthday and "many, many more." Arzenta embraces his wife, Anna, and tells her that he has to leave his son's birthday party and go out for a while. At a health spa across town, a disgusting, bearded fat man is groping his lady in the sauna, smacking his henchmen at the bar, and barking orders over the phone. The fat man calls for his henchman, but before the chump can break the threshold, Arzenta has killed the man, as icy and cold as his own stare.

Delon's Arzenta is a hitman in Duccio Tessari's Tony Arzenta (1973), who quickly gets into "a vendetta kind-of mood" after his opening hit. The disgusting, bearded fat man was a crime boss, whose hit was ordered by other syndicate boss, Nick Gusto (Richard Conte). Arzenta tells Gusto that this was his last hit and he wants out of the organization. Gusto gives Arzenta the obligatory mafia answer: once you're in, you can't get out. But Gusto will see what he can do. At a meeting of the syndicate bosses, who are meeting to divvy up the bearded, fat man's territory, Gusto brings up the subject of Arzenta wanting out. The bosses are unanimous: not happening. Kill him. Anna and Arzenta's son soon want to go shopping, but Anna's car won't start. Daddy, is it all right if we take your car? Of course, says Arzenta, and from the window of his apartment, Arzenta watches his wife and young son go up in a ball of flames with the car's explosion. From the iced-over look in Arzenta's eyes, the viewer can tell that his soul went somewhere else and was replaced with the taste for vengeance.

Tony Arzenta is a bona fide, Eurocrime classic, not because of its all-too-familiar plot but for Delon's intense performance and Duccio Tessari's direction, specifically the film's well-orchestrated and exciting action sequences and kills. There are four crime bosses, including Conte's Gusto, who Arzenta is out to kill. For example, after the first boss, Carré (Roger Hanin), berates and beats his beautiful lady, Sandra (Carla Gravina), Carré decides to take a train trip to Hamburg. Delon's Arzenta gets a tip from a beautiful lady on Carré's whereabouts and boards the train. In a fantastic sequence, the daylight train enters a tunnel. Arzenta donning black gloves and a black raincoat looks like death walking down the train corridor. With little movement from his hand, Arzenta ices the bodyguard and stares down Carré, who begs a little bit. Arzenta shoots him in the face and Carré falls through the train window. Unfortunately, Carré's legs get caught in the compartment and his torso and head get bashed on trackside scenery. In the film's coldest hit, Arzenta wakes his victim up from a nice nap in a chair, so he can look Arzenta in the face before he takes a bullet to the forehead.

The most jarring aspect of Tony Arzenta is the most brutal violence is enacted upon women. Carla Gravina's Sandra gets spit on and berated by Carré, only later to have some thugs give her an extremely brutal beatdown. Eurocult titan and sexy siren, Erika Blanc, makes a brief appearance as a prostitute, who Arzenta witnesses receiving a beating in a hallway by her boyfriend. I have no evidence as to whether Tessari and company were enacting their own misogynist views or were delivering sequences for an audience which expected such violence. However, when Domenico, Arzenta's "sidekick," played by Marc Porel, is tortured by the same thugs who beat up Sandra, the violence is pretty sick but nowhere near as graphic and brutal.

My man-crush for actor Alain Delon is only rivalled by my man-crush for Steve McQueen. By the time Delon had appeared in Tony Arzenta, he had already starred in three crime classics by Jean-Pierre Melville: Le Samouraï (1967), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), and Un Flic (1972) (everyone should see these three multiple times). He would subsequently appear in two very underrated French crime films, both directed by Jacques Deray: Le Gang (1977) and super cool, Three Men to Kill (1980), alongside beautiful Dalila Di Lazzaro. Delon's performance in Tony Arzenta is up there with his French crime classics. His trademark icy stares and stoic demeanor are used perfectly by Tessari in this role.Italian genre director, Duccio Tessari, like his contemporaries, made films in multiple genres and his work, today, is perhaps underappreciated. Tessari directed two of the finest Italian Westerns ever made, both with Giuliano Gemma, A Pistol for Ringo (1965) and The Return of Ringo (1965) (both scripted, incidentally, by Fernando di Leo, perhaps the finest director of Italian crime films). Tessari made a terrific giallo in 1971, The Bloodstained Butterfly, before Tony Arzenta. Subsequent to Arzenta, Tessari made the excellent and entertaining Tough Guys (1974), with Lino Ventura, Isaac Hayes, William Berger, and Fred Williamson. Tessari's action choreography, his compositions, and his pacing are all extremely well-done in Arzenta, and arguably, this film is his finest accomplishment as a director.

Finally, Tony Arzenta has some of my all-time favorite music from an Italian genre film (to be fanboy specific, this is an Italo/French production). Gianni Ferrio is credited with the score, and it's an excellent mix of funky and jazzy sounds and used liberally throughout the film. Erika Blanc's brief appearance is welcome and lovely Eurocult legend, Rosalba Neri, appears in the film (at least in the version that I saw) for under a minute. No strangers to European cult cinema, Carla Gravina, Marc Porel, and Richard Conte give excellent supporting performances. A true favorite of European crime cinema which is also a classic. See it.