Borsalino (1970)

Borsalino movie storyline. Marseille in the mid-1930s… At the funeral of his friend François Capella, the gangster Roch Siffredi (Alain Delon), who controls the area, swears that he will avenge. When he learns that the fascist Italian gang leader Giovanni Volpone (Riccardo Cucciolla) is behind the murder of his friend, he first finds his brother and kills him.

However, as police chief Fanti (Daniel Ivernel) warned Siffredi, Volpone, who collaborated with the Germans and sought to establish his own ‘order’ in Marseilles, is determined to avenge his brother and destroy Siffredi’s criminal empire. In a short time Siffredi’s nightclub, casino and brothel were raided and his men killed. Besides, Siffredi was captured by the men of Volpone.

Borsalino is a 1970 French gangster film directed by Jacques Deray and starring Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Rouvel. It was entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2009 Empire magazine named it #19 in a poll of “The 20 Greatest Gangster Movies You’ve Never Seen… Probably”.

A sequel, Borsalino & Co., was released in 1974 with Alain Delon in the leading role. The film is based on real life gangsters Paul Carbone and François Spirito, who were members of the Carlingue (the French Gestapo), that collaborated with Nazi Germany during the occupation of France in World War Two (though this is not mentioned in the film).

It was being shown on BBC One in the United Kingdom on August 31, 1997 when it was interrupted at 1:45am by BBC newsreader Martyn Lewis to bring the first news report that Diana, Princess of Wales had been involved in a car crash in Paris. The film would be interrupted one more time in the following hour for another update about the crash.

Directed by: Jacques Deray
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Arnoldo Foà, Catherine Rouvel, Françoise Christophe, Corinne Marchand, Laura Adani, Nicole Calfan, Hélène Rémy, Odette Piquet, Pierre Koulak
Screenplay by: Jean-Claude Carrière, Jean Cau, Jacques Deray, Claude Sautet
Cinematography by: Jean-Jacques Tarbès
Film Editing by: Paul Cayatte
Costume Design by: Jacques Fonteray
Set Decoration by: Robert Christidès
Art Direction by: François de Lamothe
Music by: Claude Bolling
MPAA Rating: R for some strong gangster violence.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures (United States)
Release Date: May 20, 1970