Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

GodeonWay In a nutshell, I'd call this police drama 'pretty good'. But not nearly as excellent as some reviewers have made it out to be. On the plus side are the standout performances of tough cop Lino Ventura and his rookie assistant, the enchanting Marlène Jobert. In the early 1970s Jobert was probably France's most in-demand actress, so lovely and so endearing that it was hard not to fall in love with her. I succombed immediately on seeing her irresistible performance in René Clément's classic Rider on the Rain, where she is perfectly paired with the redoubtable Charles Bronson.Also on the plus side are many gorgeous glimpses of Paris, by day and by night. On the minus side though, is the contrived drama of the movie. Like many French police films of the period, it tries too hard to be more than a police story. It strives to be a meaningful essay on modern society, morality and lost illusions.Still, it's pretty good, and if you're a fan of directors like Sidney Lumet, Arthur Penn and Elia Kazan, you'll probably find a great deal to like in Dernier domicile connu. But if your taste runs more toward Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, you can skip this one and go directly to Rider on the Rain.

udar55 Inspector Marceau Leonetti (Lino Ventura) gets demoted after arresting a young kid whose father has connections. He is assigned to a small town where the biggest crime is helping a kid locate his stolen pigeons and, later, working alongside newbie Jeanne Dumas (Marlène Jobert) to bust perverts in movie theaters. Their careers take an upswing when, unbeknown to Leonetti, his former boss assigns him the futile task of finding a witness in 8 days before a major murder trial. What his superiors didn't count on was Leonetti's tenacity in finding this uncooperative witness and the fact that the accused also has some men out with the same task. This is the third film from director José Giovanni (writer of THE SICILIAN CLAN) and it proves to be a pretty grim affair. There is a lot of commentary on the rat (or should I say ant) race as Leonetti is just a cog in the wheel of justice (at one point Jeanne event comments on his unending searching, asking if he is a robot). Audiences will probably feel the most connection with Jobert's character as she is tackling the assignment with a fresh belief in "the system." Ventura is awesome in the lead role of the seen-it-all vet and he has a great fight scene toward the end. You'll probably see the end coming, but it still has quite an impact thanks to a matter-of-fact presentation by Giovanni.

jotix100 "Dernier domicile connu" was shown the other day on a French cable channel. This was the third film of Jose Giovanni, a man who wrote extensively for the French cinema and went on to direct his own material. Mr. Giovanni's forte was the "policier" in which he excelled with the themes he decided to tackle, as he proves here.This film shows a felicitous casting with Lino Ventura and Marlene Jobert in the principal roles. Both actors show an easy chemistry between them as two police following the trail of a man wanted to testify in a judicial process. To make things different the two cops decide to concentrate in the daughter of the man being sought. The pivotal witness is not their key interest, knowing that of they find the little girl, she will lead them to the father, while at the same time, opposing criminals try to outsmart the policemen.Mr. Giovanni, who based his screenplay on a Joseph Harrington novel of the same title, takes the viewer all over the Paris of those years, taking the viewer all over the city, setting the story in out of the way places many visitors never get to see. The best thing in the film is a young, and fresh, Marlene Jobert, perfect as the rookie detective. Lino Ventura is effective as the tough as nails cop working against the clock to get to the witness.

dbdumonteil This might be my Jose Giovanni favorite.His third movie,it is perhaps his most endearing one.A really unusual thriller,which uses urban landscapes with great skill.We often seem to be lost in an ocean of windows ,which makes sense,because the plot is actually a search.Two cops,a man and a woman, (Ventura and Jobert)are looking for a witness for the prosecution .That man seems to have disappeared.So their investigation looks like a treasure hunt.They meet a lot of people,some of whom have known the mysterious guy.They learn that he is a widower living with his daughter.The girl herself is an enigma,being described as a fairy tale princess by some (Paul Crauchet) or a vicious Lolita (the woman with the cat).The woman cop even dreams of them,and that sequence is really excellent,as they seem more and more to be a mirage.There is something of John Huston in the conclusion of "dernier domicile connu" (last known address).It deals with cowardice ,sadness and despair,one of the harshest endings Giovanni ever filmed.Even if they succeeded in their mission,the two cops realize that they have been manipulated and that they have completely destroyed two human beings' happiness.Marlène Jobert has perhaps never been better than here.Once a enthusiastic rookie ,her despair is intense when the movie ends.Ventura portrays a fallen cop from the beginning: He was relegated to a local police station after having arrested a drunken rich kid.Disillusioned ,but still believing in what he's doing,he will become a broken man as the last lines read:life is lost when you did not live your life as you would have liked to.Good directing,fine acting,and as usual ,wonderful score by François de Roubaix.