Death of a Corrupt Man

The deputy Serrano is murdered and his friend Xavier Marechal is the first to reach the scene. In the dead man's hands is a notebook holding the names that have tied politics and business together for years. Marechal takes it, and from that moment everyone is looking for him: the police, ministers, journalists and the mob. Georges Lautner directed. Alain Delon plays Marechal, Ornella Muti the woman, with Michel Aumont, Maurice Ronet and Klaus Kinski around him. The film belongs to the period when corruption arguments were at their loudest in seventies France and winks openly at real political scandals. At its centre is one idea: finding the culprit is possible, but the system is already inside the crime. The score is by Philippe Sarde, with the saxophone parts played by Stan Getz, which gives the film a coldness of its own. Delon is not a man of action here; in most scenes he waits, watches and arrives late. Who it is for: viewers who like French political crime films and Delon's seventies period. Who it is not for: anyone looking for clear justice; the film promises none.