"He votes against long hair, porn, and abortions. But not arms dealing."
French politicians of the 1970's in Georges Lautner's wonderful "Death of a Corrupt Man" haven't changed their stripes from global democracy of today, apparently. One of the best of the 70's French paranoid thrillers that stars two of my favorite actors, Alain Delon and Ornella Muti and just drips with corruption behind every movement and action, the film's tense grip on who's watching who only grows tighter (and somehow weirder) after Klaus Kinski shows up as a high ranking political figure also involved in the hunt for a document that could ruin everyone. The said document, held by the beautiful Muti, becomes the focal point in a film that never really clarifies who is good/bad/or corrupt, but seamlessly posits that in a world this awash with self-preservation, it doesn't really matter any longer.
Directed by veteran filmmaker Georges Lautner (who made a host of action and crime thrillers with lots of Delon, Belmondo and Michel Constantin), "Death of a Corrupt Man" stands out for its austere tone and commitment to a reality where there's little room to breathe and even less room to say the wrong thing in public. Floating at the margins of the mystery are the dead man's drunken wife (Stephane Audran), her new lover (Julien Guiomar) and two police officers trying to unravel the deaths (Jean Bouise and Michel Aumont). How it plays out (in typical fatalist fashion) is yet another of the claustrophobic joys of a film that not only seems to get the blase attitude of those in charge, but the only thing that ever seems to generate sizeable action on their part is mobilizing to protect themselves. Oh, and Delon's apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower? Wow. One of the discoveries of the year for me.
