La Loi du survivant (1967)
Directed by José Giovanni

Film Review

The Corsican Joseph Damiani, better known as José Giovanni, found fame as a novelist, screenwriter and film director.  A former convict who was sentenced to death but rehabilitated, he drew the inspiration of his novels from his personal experiences, as well as from the people he had known in Le Milieu, the Parisian criminal underworld. Not long after his release from prison, Giovanni wrote his first novel, which  recounted his own unsuccessful break-out; this was shortly later adapted for cinema by director Jacques Becker as Le Trou (1960), one of the finest prison escape films.

Giovanni's subsequent novels were also made into films, many to become classics of French cinema.  These include Claude Sautet's Classe tous risques (1960), Jean Becker's Un nommé La Rocca (1961) and Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Deuxième souffle (1966).  Robert Enrico directed two of Giovanni's novels (with some picturesque flair) as Les Grandes gueules (1966) and Les Aventuriers (1967).  As well as serving time as a screenwriter and dialogist, Giovanni also directed several adaptations of his novels, including: Le Rapace (1968), Deux hommes dans la ville (1973), Le Gitan (1975) and Le Ruffian (1983).  His novels and films tend to revolve around the same themes:  male friendship, a code of honour, loyalty, treason, revenge and the confrontation of the individual with nature (with nature invariably gaining the upper hand). 

La Loi du survivant was the first film that Giovanni directed.  Released on 19th April 1967, it is a sombre and intense thriller based on his novel Les Aventuriers, which also spawned the film of the same title directed by Robert Enrico.  Whilst the latter film concentrates on male comradeship (between two chalk-and-cheese characters played by Lino Ventura and Alain Delon), Giovanni's film deals with darker themes and, whilst not intended as a sequel, gives a hint as to what happens to Ventura's character, the survivor of the first film.

Filmed on the director's home territory of Corsica, La Loi du survivant represents a promising filmmaking debut, even if the film suffers a little from its uneven pacing and all-too-obvious nods to American cinema of the period.  The Corsican landscape provides a suitably grand and forbidding backdrop for the tense, sometimes brutal drama, the ordeal being as much psychological as physical for the unfortunate protagonists.  Admirers of Giovanni's later, more commercially oriented films, will be surprised by the slow pace of what is a much more restrained and cerebral kind of thriller.    

Francois de Roubaix, a frequent collaborator of Giovanni, provides another suitably evocative score which is in perfect harmony with the dark undercurrents of the story.  Giovanni's films are impeccably cast, and this is no exception.  One of the more familiar heavies in French cinema, all too often confined to supporting roles, Michel Constantin proves himself here in a made-to-measure role that makes good use of his physique, macho charm and sensitivity.  The stunning Canadian actress Alexandra Stewart is equally well suited for the part of Hélène, the enigmatic femme fatale who provides the crux of an intricately crafted narrative.  Roger Blin, another fine actor with a long and illustrious film career, offers up a deliciously villainous turn as the enigmatic and cruel jailer.

On its first release in France, La Loi du survivant attracted a respectable audience of 0.6 million.  It was an encouraging start for the crime writer-turned-director who had a knack of telling compelling stories that reflected not only the gangster milieu he was familiar with, but also society in general.  José Giovanni was a man with a message and by becoming a fully fledged filmmaker he was in a privileged position to broadcast that message to the widest audience.  His best and possibly most important film, Deux hommes dans la ville was a whole-hearted repudiation of the French judicial system that would add impetus to the movement for the abolition of capital punishment in France.

Film Synopsis

Kroll, alias Le Kalmouk, is an adventurer who made his fortune by digging up a fabulous treasure somewhere in Asia with two of his companions.  During the expedition one of the party was killed, and so Kroll decides to make a visit to the grave of his friend in Corsica.  One evening, another Corsican friend invites him into a mysterious property guarded by killer dogs.  Once inside the house, Kroll encounters Hélène, a young woman who quietly yields herself to anyone introduced to her by the castle's owner.  When Kroll notices Hélène's inexplicable terror he makes up his mind to liberate her from her jailers.  As they make their escape, they are hastily pursued by several other inhabitants of the castle.  It is time for Kroll and Hélène to discover the law of survival...