Italian movie star Alida Valli died Saturday at the age of 84, occasioning one of those sentences that should have been at least a chapter:
Rather than comply with the dictates of the fascist government, Ms. Valli retreated into hiding and in 1944 married Oscar de Mejo, a Surrealist painter and composer, whose most successful song was "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."
Two years and two days ago French writer and film director José Giovanni died.
Born in 1923, he became a member of the 'Resistance', stayed with smuggling weapons after World War II, was sentenced to death and luckily pardoned ten years later at the age of 33.
In prison he wrote "The Hole", a novel about a prison escape (not so much a novel ...), which was put to the screen by Jaques Becker in 1960.
The basic theme of Giovanni's novels and 15 films was friendship and solidarity. After he was released from prison, he and two friends wanted to emigrate to Australia. They all had already booked their passages. Two got their visa, the third didn't. They all stayed.
And so José Giovanni came to direct some very memorable movies.
http://www.filmbuffonline.com/InRemembrance/JoseGiovanni.htm
The music to some of his early movies was written by Francois de Roubaix, who might have become a legend of film music like Ennio Morricone, had he not perished in a freak dive accident in 1975 ...
Posted by: Peter on April 26, 2006 12:37 PM