He Died with His Eyes Open (1985) User Reviews

You only die twice .

[dbdumonteil · 6/10 · 27 April 2019]

Critics are very divised on Jacques deray's most ambitious movie in the eighties:whilst Jean Tulard hailed it as the director's apex , Alain Garel ,in "la Saison Cinématographique 1986 ,was much less laudative , deploring that the denouement of Robin Cook's novel was cheapened .

Jacques Deray had already broached psychological thriller,notably in "La piscine",(1969) which holds up quite well today ;he would succeed again in "Un Crime "(1993) ,an unfairly overlooked film noir.

In the eighties , like in the seventies,he was too often at the beck and call of French superstars ("Trois Hommes A Abattre" ,"Le Marginal") ,and his production suffered accordingly ."On Ne Meurt Que Deux Fois" is much less derivative casting Serrault ,who from "Pile Ou Face " had relinquished comedies to dramatic works , is credible as a cop,but less so as a man who can seduce Charlotte Rampling who ,with Xavier Deluc -too often ignored by both directors and audiences - ,forms a fascinating ambiguous pernicious pair.

The movie often drags on ,and Deray's directing too static and conventional ; if the movie sometimes does the trick,it's because of Rampling' s deadly charm ,par excellence the English femme fatale and of Michel Audiard's final lines -he was to die shortly afterwards- : the conversation at the morgue with the medical examiners is perhaps the best moment in the whole movie and would justify the English title "you'll die with your eyes open" -the French one is my title .

an immersive police investigation

[dromasca · 7/10 · 13 December 2022]

At first glance 'On ne meurt que deux fois' (or 'He Died with His Eyes Open' - the title of the English version) is another detective movie, with a police inspector investigating a murder. And yet this 'whodunit' style story comes to life on screen beyond expectations. There are several good reasons, but it all starts with the script bringing to screen a novel written by the English novelist Robin Cook (not to be confused with the American author of medical thrillers with the same name) and published in France in translation in the famous collection 'Serie noire'. In fact, it is more of an adaptation than a screenplay, with the authors of the script changing the characters quite a bit and transferring the story from the underworld of London to the elegant salons of the Parisian fashion and art world. However, given that the adaptation is signed by Michel Audiard (together with the director Jacques Deray) I was expecting many good things. It is actually one of the last films written by Audiard, released in the last year of his life, 1985. Audiard is a master of spoken text, a screenwriter who knows how to build characters and put words into their mouths that sound natural, intelligent and adapted to the social environment and the story. In this film too, his characters cross the screen well and remain in the memory long after viewing.

Roger Staniland is no ordinary police inspector. When he is assigned to investigate the murder of a man who turns out to be a talented middle-aged pianist, he almost single-handedly takes charge of the investigation. His method of working is immersion in the victim's life. He spends long hours in his apartment, puts on his clothes, listens to the magnetic tapes on which he had recorded the daily events as a kind of personal audio diary. (To understand the technology, the viewer must be 40 years+. Today, instead of recording on tapes, the victim would probably have used a mobile phone and an Instagram or TikTok account). Things get complicated when appears Beatrice, the victim's mistress, a fascinating and dangerous woman. Immersion in the life of the victim risks exceeding the permissible limits.

As a detective story, the film is quite neutrally shot. Even the scenes in the deserted Parisian streets in the middle of the night or in the discos where the detective ends up on the trail of the victim do not add much. The film's qualities and psychological tension are built through the two main characters, who each maintain a consistent dose of ambiguity, leaving the viewer to fill in the neutral areas with their own imagination or character analysis. Beatrice, played by Charlotte Rampling who was then at a maximum of magnetism and with the aura of mystery that she adds to many of her roles, does not hide from the beginning that she is playing a dangerous game, but neither the investigator nor the viewers will find it easy to cast aside the successive veils of personal secrets and appearances. In the role of the inspector appears Michel Serrault, a talented actor, chameleonic in other films. Here, at first glance, the character is a rather ordinary man, a policeman who does his duty intelligently and without too many scruples, but whose personal sphere is also in danger when he is confronted with the fascinating woman who can be criminal or victim. The two characters represent two poles of interest around which the whole story takes place. The bond between the two is painstakingly constructed, but fails to be entirely believable when the plot slips into erotic thriller. The scenes in the victim's apartment, in the cafes and bistros where the investigation takes the inspector build an interesting ensemble not only from the point of view of the progress of the investigation, but especially of the evolution of the characters. The performances of the two actors, the interesting story and the dialogues by which it is transposed on the screen, make 'On ne meurt que deux fois' a recommended viewing or re-watching even today.

Audiard's last words would not let the movie take a life of its own

[vostf · 5/10 · 27 August 2019]

The only way to enjoy the movie is to listen to Audiard's bitter last words. After the death of his elder son François (10 years before he penned this last movie) all his personal work took a sharp turn from the silly burlesque comedies he directed to deep dark psychological murder mysteries.

These murder mysteries are a vehicule for dialog to reminisce the dead, understand who he was, finalize an inventory of the remorse not to have known the intriguing victim better, not to have lived a life closer to his. Apart from this very personal subtext this movie is lamely directed. Minimalistic direction works most of the time for noir film, the problem here is that the dialogue eats up all the story.

So if you are not interested in listening to profoundly dark words by Audiard you will be disappointed to see Michel Serrault embody a sinister character ghostly floating along the lines of the master wordsman.

I am not giving to much away with the last line: Audiard looks back on his life and wonders if he ever was sincere enough or too much of a boasting showman wording his way away from simple things.

A treat for fans of La Rampling, a real Euro mystery.

[terraplane · 10/10 · 21 November 2003]

You'll die with your eyes open if you are a fan of the beautiful Charlotte. In a great french speaking role she is the best thing in the film. The plot is a touch convoluted and a bit difficult to unravel but basically it is a murder mystery. The cop who is supposed to be solving the crime is easily led astray by the smouldering Charlotte Rampling. Let's face it, she could lead any man astray just by looking at them!! And in this film she does more than just looking. Is she telling the truth when she confesses or is she protecting someone? All will be revealed, including all of Charlotte Rampling. If you think that I've given the game away, well, come on now, you'd be disappointed if she didn't get her kit off wouldn't you? See the film if you get the chance, it's a pretty good example of a french cop film if you like that sort of thing. It's certainly better than a lot of the trashy cop films that Hollywood churns out. 7/10.

On ne meurt que deux fois - Jacques Deray attempts -and partly fails - to make a film noir

[eightylicious · 8/10 · 8 March 2022]

In the 80's, director Jacques Deray had it big. He collaborated with superstar Jean-Paul Belmondo in box office hit "Le marginal" (1983), and the less successful "Le solitaire" five years later. It was with an adaptation of Robin Cook's novel "On ne meurt que deux fois" that he made his most ambitious work, which, because of its aspiring nature itself, partly failed to be what he had envisaged it.

The film's protagonist is inspector Staniland (Michel Serrault), who is called in to investigate the murder of the pianist Charles Berliner. While searching for suspects, he finds some tapes where Berliner himself confesses his fear of a certain Marc, saying indicatively "He might kill me someday". It is at this moment that Berliner's former mistress , Barbara (Charlotte Rampling) arrives, and confesses to having murdered the pianist herself. So, who is guilty, and, is she telling the truth? These are the questions that the bemused inspector has to answer.

While I can understand Deray's will to make a film noir, his direction wasn't up to the task. The film keeps dragging on, with long scenes that serve the plot little but to show the late Michel Audiard's dialogues (this was his last script, he died some months later). It is through his more commercial work, like "Le marginal", that Deray showed his directing at its best. Fast-paced, action-packed scenes that move the plot were the features of the latter film. It is indicative that "On ne meurt que deux fois" and "Le marginal" have the same duration, yet the second one feels shorter, due to Deray's excellent work.

The actors saved this film from failing. The duo Serrsult-Rampling weren't as strong as the one he had formed with Isabelle Adjani in "Mortelle randonnée", but it is interesting to see Rampling's attempts at seducing the inspector, who is there to do his job. Serrault was made to play roles of policemen, and this film clearly shows that. Regarding Rampling, she was perfect as the femme fatale. Seductive, bold, and intelligents, she served as an excellent counterpoint to Serrault's reserved hero.

The music in the film, provided by Claude Balling, was of average quality. I wasn't impressed by the jazzy instrumentals, the only song that I liked being the one heard during a scene at a discotheque, which wasn't even composed by Balling, it being just a pop piece of the era.

All in all, "On ne meurt que deux fois" is a film of average quality, that is saved by its actors' convincing performances. It is commendable, though, for the being one of the few successful film noirs in France at the decade, surpassing one million admissions, when films of its kind were mostly ignored. A good effort by a capable director and cast, that could have been much better, had Deray taken example of the more commercial aspects of his work.