Two Men in Town

Gino comes out after ten years in prison. He has a job, a woman, and a probation officer called Germain who genuinely helps him. He builds a quiet life. The problem is not his old circle but a policeman who knows him: inspector Goitreau will not let him go, watches him constantly, comes to his workplace and stops him in the street. The pressure continues and one day Gino loses control. José Giovanni writes and directs. Alain Delon plays Gino and Jean Gabin plays Germain, with Michel Bouquet and Gérard Depardieu in the cast. José Giovanni was sentenced to death as a young man and had the sentence commuted; after prison he became a writer and director. The film's position against capital punishment comes directly from that. The subject is life after a sentence. Gino has served his time and the system will not let him alone; the film is about the consequences of a permanent mark rather than of a crime. The guillotine was still in use in France at the time; the last execution took place in 1977 and the death penalty was abolished in 1981. The film appeared inside that argument and takes a side openly. Jean Gabin and Alain Delon appeared together in several films and this is among their last. The final section skips no detail and shows the execution directly. Who it is for: anyone interested in seventies French crime films and the argument about capital punishment. Who it is not for: the film openly carries a thesis, the policeman is one dimensional, and the ending is hard to watch.