Les Égouts du paradis (1979)

Les Égouts du paradis is a French thriller film first released in 1979, directed by José Giovanni.  The film is based on a novel by Albert Spaggiari and stars Francis Huster, Jean-François Balmer, Lila Kedrova, Bérangère Bonvoisin and Gabriel Briand.  It has also been released under the title: The Sewers of Paradise.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Albert Spaggiari plans the most spectacular robbery of his career: to raid the vault of a major bank by tunnelling up from the sewers.  He recruits a team of crack professional crooks and hires the sophisticated hardware needed to pull off the heist.  The stakes are high, but so is the reward.  But for Spaggiari, this venture is much more than just about getting rich quick…

This is a pretty run-off-the-mill variation on a familiar theme, the perfectly planned super-robbery which fails to end happily for its perpetrators.  José Giovanni, an ex-convict himself, was a successful writer of crime fiction before he turned to film direction in the 1970s.  Whilst most of his films have a feeling of authenticity about them, and some are rather good, a few others, and this is one, doesn’t quite make the grade.

Despite some noteworthy artistic pluses (the cinematography and score are a credit to any film of this ilk), the film falls down on its script and direction. The principal character Spaggiari initially appears interesting but he just fails to develop and remains a rather dull yet baffling enigma, and this despite an engaging performance from Francis Huster.   The film is also slightly marred by a pedestrian plot with just a few too many untidy loose ends.  Satisfying perhaps to those who enjoy this genre of film, but a disappointment to anyone expecting something to match one of Giovanni’s earlier, more stylish and full-bodied thrillers.

© James Travers 2002

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