Wordiezett So much average

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Myriam Nys Good, taut police procedural based on a novel by Joseph Harrington. (I never read anything by this author, which sounds like a lack to remedy.) The translation to French society is done very well, keeping and preserving themes such as the superficiality, transience and anonimity of life in a major city. The human cost of such an urban existence can come very high, as illustrated in a scene where two detectives go to a school in order to ask questions about a pupil. Teachers and staff are kind and dedicated, but point out that many of the children disappear somewhere along the line, as a result of their parents moving, losing their jobs, divorcing,... The result is a state of permanent changeability, where no one succeeds in getting a good grasp on the background, problems and capabilities of the various pupils.Jobert and Ventura, as the detectives, are in fine shape and give good performances. Unfortunately the first ten minutes of the movie are confusing, mainly because someone somewhere thought it would be a good idea to start the story while showing the initial credits. This was not a good idea. After this confusing beginning, the movie proceeds in a clear and linear fashion, enlivened by occasional thumbnail sketches of urban eccentrics. (Watch out for the seemingly normal and civilized lady who treats her pets like infants, but hates every child and adolescent she sees - they're all grinning apes or hot little sluts.)At one point in the movie - I'm trying to avoid spoilers here - one of the characters gets involved in a savage street fight. The fight is well-choreographed and well-executed, exuding a realistic violence and viciousness. Strangely, the character thus attacked (and beaten up) is capable of continuing his activities, where logic would dictate an urgent hospitalisation, followed by many months of careful rehabilitation. But then, this is a failure common to many movies : people walk away from accidents and attacks that, by rights, should send them to an emergency ward or an undertaker...

vostf Lino Ventura is simply perfect as this noir hero, too professional to rebel against the absurdity of his job. But why would they have him wear a small hat? The big broad-shouldered, former pro wrestler, Lino Ventura in brown-over-black 1970 style (remember Shaft?), OK, but who wears a hat in 1970? It makes him look like Inspector Clouseau. In the book Francis X. Kerrigan wears a dust jacket, OK this is the overused private coat, but keep it simple, in tune and in genre.Fortunately the story is good, it's a sharp and clean police procedural and it shows that José Giovanni loved it. He loved that it displayed a stubborn officer walking his beat in the midst of general hostility against police. It was really fashionable to criticise the police around 1969 and Giovanni is happy to drive the point home more than once, most prominently in Paul Crauchet's monologue, but generally in the absurdity of Lino Ventura's assignments. Subtlety is definitely not Giovanni's forte but here it blends well with the simple police procedural.All in all this could have been a tremendous modern noir with a better director (Melville, Sautet). The result doesn't show important directorial choices. Camera work and editing are average, and sound editing is poor while François de Roubaix's score would have been sufficient to carry most of the images. In the end you will feel as if the movie simply vanishes from your memory while you were really rooting for Ventura and Joubert minutes before.

almontin First of all, this is the first time I have watched a Lino Venture movie, so seeing it with new eyes has perhaps conferred it a special shine. But it is truly a very beautiful movie shot in a 1960s Paris in which only the cars have changed over the years. But the beauty also applies to the cast of actors and to their sensitive acting.Lino Ventura is the fallen cop who doesn't bare a grudge and is dedicated as ever to his job, landing him into a painful fist fight with some thugs, and dealing chivalrously with his bright-eyed assistant Marlène Jobert who truly delivers as a newcomer to the job of crime fighting, aptly portraying both excitement and disillusion. The supporting cast, good and evil, deliver very well and accurately depict Paris' diversity (often through gritty character depictions and photography) 40 years back.The plot flows well, sometimes interspersed with dream sequences which are beautifully rendered. Never cheesy (like so many movies of the time), well paced and acted, truly a great cop movie which has aged very gracefully.

dromasca I watched this film on the European culture channel ARTE mainly for its two great stars, Lino Ventura and Marlene Jobert, which I remembered dearly from their performances in the French movies of the 70s. I was not wrong, it is actually the quality of their acting that holds the whole film or what survived the four decades since its making.It's a cop story like the ones they loved to film at that point in time and they still love to film nowadays. Ventura is a tired cop, hit by life (he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident) and by the system (he is sent to a non-important job because of a lawyerish intrigue). He pairs with young, enthusiastic and sweet Jobert in searching for a key witness who seems to have evaporated in the urban jungle. Their moves are followed by the mob who tries to avoid their boss being condemned as result of the witness deposition. They find the witness and his kid daughter (the emotional balance of the story) but the ultimate result will be tragic.While the two principal characters are alive by virtue of the acting of these two wonderful actors the rest of the film is written in quite a conventional manner. Lino Ventura is tough, battered by life and human, Marlene Jobert is beautiful, fragile and naive and has the most beautiful pair of eyes in the history of French cinema which does not lack beautiful eyes. The ending inspired many other films to come, but if remade today the film would be much more tense, much more violent, and more true to reality. 'Dernier domicile connu' does not age well. It's still worth being seen by fans of director Jose Giovani, or of Ventura and Jobert, as one of the solid pieces of their work.