French Thrillers of the 1970s
Volume I - Crime Films
by Roberto Curti and Frank Lafond
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Book Presentation:
The 1970s were a pivotal decade for French crime films (also known as "polars"). The genre reached its commercial peak with box-office hits like Borsalino and Le Cercle rouge, starring the country's top stars, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon. The decade saw the release of key works by renowned auteurs such as Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri Verneuil, Rene Clement, and Claude Lelouch, as well as the emergence of young filmmakers (Yves Boisset, Philippe Labro, Alain Corneau, and Serge Leroy, among others) who sought to retrieve the efficiency and visual dynamism of American cinema while often employing the crime genre as a tool for a more nuanced discourse, depicting a nation in the throes of urban mutation and undergoing key political changes.
This book lists all the crime films produced and released in France from 1970 to 1979, with a detailed production history and critical analysis of each title, placing them within the social and political context of post-War French culture, politics and cinema. It includes never-before-seen bits of information taken from French archives.
About the authors:
Roberto Curti is an Italian film historian and the author of books on Italian Gothic and giallo cinema, plus critical biographies of European filmmakers such as Riccardo Freda, Tonino Valerii, Elio Petri, Marco Ferreri, and Jesus Franco. He lives in Cortona, Italy.
Frank Lafond, PhD, teaches at a film school, and has published many articles, academic essays, and books. He lives in Brignoles, France.
See the books in French by Frank Lafond...
> From the same authors:
The Films of Jesús Franco, 1953–1966 (2024)
by Francesco Cesari and Roberto Curti
Subject: Director > Jesús Franco
Proibito! (2023)
A History of Italian Film Censorship, 1913–2021
Italian Giallo in Film and Television (2022)
A Critical History
Mavericks of Italian Cinema (2018)
Eight Unorthodox Filmmakers, 1940s–2000s
> On a related topic:
The Taking of New York City (2024)
Crime on the Screen and in the Streets of the Big Apple in the 1970s
Giallo! (2021)
Genre, Modernity, and Detection in Italian Horror Cinema
Welcome to Fear City (2019)
Crime Film, Crisis, and the Urban Imagination
Subject: Countries > United States
Transnational Crime Cinema (2024)
Dir. Sarah Delahousse and Aleksander Sedzielarz
Subject: Genre > Gangster films
Framing Law and Crime (2016)
An Interdisciplinary Anthology
Dir. Caroline Joan Kay S. Picart
Subject: Genre > Gangster films
Jack the Ripper (2008)
His Life and Crimes in Popular Entertainment
by Gary Coville and Patrick Lucanio
Subject: Genre > Gangster films
Screening Sherlock (2025)
A Cultural History of the Great Detective on Film and Television
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