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LE GITAN (Adel Productions, Lira Films, Mondial Televisione Film, 1975)

D: José Giovanni. P: Raymond Danon, Alain Delon. W: José Giovanni, Franco Verucci. Ph: Jean-Jacques Tarbés. M: Rene Duprat, Lick, E. Sansky. St: Alain Delon (Hugo Sennart, Le Gitan), Paul Meurisse (Yan Kuq), Annie Girardot (Ninie), Marcel Bozzuffi (Blot), Bernard Giraudeau (Maureuil).


You need the whole army to take one man in.”         

Melding crime drama and progressive politics, Giovanni’s adaption of his own novel also fuses the visceral thrills of Italian poliziotteschi with the icy countenance of Gallic films policiers. Adapted from the director’s 1959 novel Histoires de Fou, the resulting script’s rebellious attitude so appealed to Delon that he secured finance and produced the film. Of the titular character’s disaffection, he said, “Since childhood my character learned that society only gave … rubbish tips to people of his race.”[i] Giovanni (pseudonym for Joseph Damiani) fought in the Resistance but also collaborated, so it was perhaps curious to see the script injected with such humanism. He would spend time on death row before receiving clemency; his time in jail was spent writing, and his dark crime novels generated a number of classic French crime films: Le Trou, Classe Tous Risques, Le Deuxième Souffle.


A sweeping bird’s-eye shot displays the disparities between the film’s anti-hero and the society he’s at odds with. From petit bourgeois holidaymakers on a Mediterranean resort, the camera rests on the wasteland of a gypsy encampment. However, the whimsical flavour conjured by Django Reinhardt’s lilting guitar strings is swiftly undercut; the inhabitants of this settlement are being forcibly removed and the authorities are looking for infamous criminal Hugo Sennart.
 
 
In a parallel strand, ageing safe cracker Yan Kuq returns to his opulent Parisian apartment after a successful job to discover his wife on the phone to her lover. After he beats her, she jumps to her death. Kuq, whose disdain for Sennart is palpable, seeks refuge in resort town Palavas-les-Flots, where his destiny will intertwine with that of his long-time foe, who is hiding there after robbing a security truck.

 
 

The role of Romany anti-hero was tailor-made for Delon. Despite not having the swarthy complexion of the many extras that inhabit the scenes in the gypsy settlement, his image is highly stylised, with thick mop and moustache. Motivation for a life of violent crime seems to be rooted in rancour towards societal conformity. In fact, when policeman Blot briefs members of his department about Sennart, he tells them that he “accepts only the law of the tribe”.



Elsewhere, Sennart is portrayed as a Robin Hood figure; he tells a vet who tends to his gunshot wounds, “I haven’t robbed anyone but the State.” The fraternal bond between Sennart and his people is well illustrated in their affection and respect. Between times, however, the eminently photogenic Delon stares forlornly at migrating flamingos, a symbol of the freedom he craves but which life in the underworld prevents him from attaining.


Giovanni manipulates a diverse cast of French and Italian players all flavoured with quirks. Sennart’s sidekick Amila (played by stocky Italian Renato Salvatori) is learning English, and listens to his study tapes to kill time before jobs, while the more abrasive Helman (newcomer Maurice Barrier) is obsessed with female breasts. Kuq, on the other hand, finds solace in conversation with Ninie, the fiery hotelier/restaurateur whose premises, unbeknownst to Kuq, are adjacent to the villa occupied by Sennart.



Though the script leans towards character analysis, action is filmed with some panache. The initial robbery of a government truck begins with a shot of police officers arriving on motorcycles, reflected in Sennart’s mirrored sunglasses. Stunts are choreographed by Rémy Julienne, the great architect of Eurocrime’s knife-edged car chases. In a final race between the authorities and Sennart’s henchmen, their vehicle flips on its side amid exchanges of machine-gun fire. When alerted that the police have identified his hideout, the daring of Sennart’s escape by motorcycle is particularly intoxicating.

Discovering that Kuq was interrogated in Palavas and covered for him, Sennart concedes that he owes the older man a debt. Their meeting in Paris further conveys the gulf between vagabond and the well-heeled. As Kuq, Meurisse effortlessly conveys a sense of elegance alien to Sennart and his race.


Mixing liberal concern with depictions of violent crime does not always work, and often appears contradictory. However, the final scene shows where the sentiments of star and director lie; Sennart’s people are being evicted from another wasteland, the fears of an outcast people voiced through the tears of a child.
Clark Hodgkiss


[i] Roberto Chiesi, Alain Delon (Gremesi, 1975)
 
 
 
 
 

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