The Body of My Enemy

François Leclercq returns to an industrial town in the north. He served seven years in prison; he was accused of killing two people and he did not do it. Nobody in the town wants to see him. The Di Massa family, who own the factory, run the place; the council, the newspaper and the court are theirs. François was once with the family's daughter. The narrative proceeds in two times: now and seven years ago. The past sections open how he was accused, the present sections who really did it. Henri Verneuil directs. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays François and Bernard Blier plays Di Massa; Marie-France Pisier is in the cast. The source is Félicien Marceau's novel. Its form is in two times; no warning is given at the transitions and the viewer works out from inside the scene which time it is. The matter it treats is provincial power; one family running a town and justice belonging to them. Belmondo was mostly making action films in that period; this part is quieter and colder. The film sits inside the wave of political crime pictures made in France in the same years. The industrial town and the factory scenes work inside the narrative. Its ending grants no revenge and the order does not change. Its limit is structure; the transitions in time are hard to follow in places. Who it is for: viewers who like French crime films and Belmondo. Who it is not for: the structure is complex, the pace slow, and the ending cold.