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San Sebastian will host José Giovanni retro
Photo: San Sebastian Film Festival
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San Sebastian Film Festival has announced it will present almost all of the films directed by French filmmaker José Giovanni, as well as eight titles he wrote for other filmmakers, including Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Claude Sautet, Henri Verneuil and Robert Enrico as this year's retrospective. Twenty films will be screened in all.
Giovanni was a director, screenwriter and novelist who made a notable contribution to the golden age of French crime cinema. Organised by the Festival and the Filmoteca Vasca (Basque Film Archive) with the collaboration of the Filmoteca Española (Spanish Film Archive), the season will include the publication of the book José Giovanni. Life is not lived to the full without mercy, written by Felipe Cabrerizo and edited by Quim Casas, critic and member of the Festival’s Selection Committee.
The study covers Giovanni’s complete body of work as a novelist, screenwriter and director, as well as the more controversial aspects of his life, from his role during the German occupation to his attempt to escape from prison, which he later wrote a book about, adapting it for screen in Becker's Le Trou (The Hole).
Born in 1923, Giovanni, whose real name was Joseph Damiani, led a controversial life. In addition to spending time in jail, he was at one point sentenced to death for murder, although this was later commuted to hard labour.
His own directing debut came with Law of Survival in 1967, with his other films including Birds Of Prey and Last Known Address, which will all be included in the retrospective. Other titles include Sautet's Classe Tous Risques and Enrico's Ho!
Giovanni became a Swiss citizen in the 1980s and died in 2004. The festival runs from September 18 to 26.
