Serie noire
Directed by Alain Corneau
Written by Georges Perec and Alain Corneau from a novel by Jim Thompson
1979/France
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
“I told her the world was full of nice people. I’d have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway.”
― Jim Thompson, A Hell of a Woman
This thought-provoking thriller made a big impact on me.
This is an adaptation of a Jim Thompson story called “A Hell of a Woman”. Thompson’s universe is a deep black one and this film certainly keeps the tone as every single character in it is corrupt.
I will not try to do a detailed summary of the complicated plot but basically it is about a weirdo salesman who tries to rescue a young girl from the clutches of her aunt who has forced her into prostitution. Our protagonist ultimately finds one murder must be followed by many others. WIth Patrick Dewaere as the salesman, Marie Trintignant as the teenage prostiute and Bernard Blier as the salesman’s boss.
This is a very good looking film and Dewaere is a phenomenon. He does many bizarre things with utter conviction. It’s a big performance that pushes at the margins of going over the top. I had to sleep on it before I decided whether I liked this enough to recommend and I do.
