Last Known Address

In a nutshell, I'd call this police drama 'pretty good'. But not nearly as excellent as some reviewers have made it out to be. On the plus side are the standout performances of tough cop Lino Ventura and his rookie assistant, the enchanting Marlène Jobert.

In the early 1970s Jobert was probably France's most in-demand actress, so lovely and so endearing that it was hard not to fall in love with her. I succombed immediately on seeing her irresistible performance in René Clément's classic Rider on the Rain, where she is perfectly paired with the redoubtable Charles Bronson.

Also on the plus side are many gorgeous glimpses of Paris, by day and by night. On the minus side though, is the contrived drama of the movie. Like many French police films of the period, it tries too hard to be more than a police story. It strives to be a meaningful essay on modern society, morality and lost illusions.

Still, it's pretty good, and if you're a fan of directors like Sidney Lumet, Arthur Penn and Elia Kazan, you'll probably find a great deal to like in Dernier domicile connu.

But if your taste runs more toward Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, you can skip this one and go directly to Rider on the Rain.

Lauded Writer/Director, Jose Giovanni's classic 70s policier 'Dernier Domicile Connu' is, perhaps, one of the more charismatic French thrillers and arguably remains one of the most influentially hard-nosed policiers of the period. 'Dernier Domicile Connu' excitingly initiates many of the signature street-tough dynamics playfully exaggerated in later landmark thrillers like 'Dirty Harry'. A gritty Gallic precursor to the infinitely more lurid poliziotteschi, that violent mainstay of Italian exploitation so popular during the especially turbulent political unrest of the early 1970s.

Enigmatic, brutally efficient cop Inspector Lionetti (Lino Ventura) suddenly has his stellar, albeit controversial career irreversibly tarnished by some shady internecine political machinations, finding himself humiliatingly demoted to arresting sleazy, cinema-stalking perverts. Lionetti's new female partner, the young, naive, Jeanne Dumas (Marlene Jobert) makes an appealingly sensitive counterpoint to Lionetti's brutalist approach to police procedure. There can be little doubt that a more resplendent union of amiably mismatched cops would be hard to imagine! Unfortunately, this once novel trope is zealously appropriated with infinitely less guile today. Lionetti & Dumas become embroiled in their increasingly fraught, apparently hopeless quest of locating a key witness in a tabloid-splashed murder trial who eluded discovery for 5 years.

'Dernier Domicile Connu' remains a vital, meticulously plotted example of an especially compelling, beautifully performed, emotionally rewarding 70s crime thriller. Not only expressing a clear mastery of the form but rewarding in its many delightful narrative subtleties, amusing quirks and myriad idiosyncrasies. The sublime cinematic chemistry of charismatic screen icon, Lino Ventura and angelic, Joubert provides additional lustre to their richly detailed characters that you care deeply for. Jose Giovanni's gripping crime classic also features one of maestro, Francois de Roubaix's finest, ear-wormingly brilliant scores that funkily completes a stunning ensemble of creative filmmaking excellence.

Very good, solid French thriller from Director, Jose Giovanni, who also wrote the script. Police are supposed to be searching for key witness in an important trial and give the task to an out of favour cop, known for a tendency to get the job done by whatever means. The marvellous, Lino Ventura is that cop and almost as an aside he's given a rookie assistant played by Marlene Jobert. It is an early film for her but she had already been in Louis Malle's, Thief of Paris and Godard's, Masculin Feminin! Both are great in this and just as well because they are the film as we follow them around the outskirts of Paris, following clue by clue. Much of the film is clearly shot in the streets and is really well done. Being French there is always time to stop off in a cafe or bistro and these slower scenes are also very well done. This doesn't sound particularly thrilling but it is faultlessly put together and never lets up as we race from corner to corner of those charming Parisian streets.

This might be my Jose Giovanni favorite.His third movie,it is perhaps his most endearing one.A really unusual thriller,which uses urban landscapes with great skill.We often seem to be lost in an ocean of windows ,which makes sense,because the plot is actually a search.

Two cops,a man and a woman, (Ventura and Jobert)are looking for a witness for the prosecution .That man seems to have disappeared.So their investigation looks like a treasure hunt.They meet a lot of people,some of whom have known the mysterious guy.They learn that he is a widower living with his daughter.The girl herself is an enigma,being described as a fairy tale princess by some (Paul Crauchet) or a vicious Lolita (the woman with the cat).The woman cop even dreams of them,and that sequence is really excellent,as they seem more and more to be a mirage.

There is something of John Huston in the conclusion of "dernier domicile connu" (last known address).It deals with cowardice ,sadness and despair,one of the harshest endings Giovanni ever filmed.Even if they succeeded in their mission,the two cops realize that they have been manipulated and that they have completely destroyed two human beings' happiness.

Marlène Jobert has perhaps never been better than here.Once a enthusiastic rookie ,her despair is intense when the movie ends.Ventura portrays a fallen cop from the beginning: He was relegated to a local police station after having arrested a drunken rich kid.Disillusioned ,but still believing in what he's doing,he will become a broken man as the last lines read:life is lost when you did not live your life as you would have liked to.

Good directing,fine acting,and as usual ,wonderful score by François de Roubaix.

Ventura is the seasoned cop who gets punished by his boss and transferred to a secondary precinct and Jobert the idealistic trainee, who must support him during a relentless chase.

A key witness to a mafia crime disappeared five years previously and the guilty mafia boss may get acquitted without the witness evidence.

With five days to go before the end of the trial the unlikely couple run around Paris, trying to find the witness and betting everything on retracing his daughter, a pale, sick but remarkable girl who left an impression on whomever met her.

Unfolding before the digital era, the investigation takes place in the field, which means hundreds of schools, chemists and doctors visited. All this, while the mafioso's gang is following closely, eager to eliminate the witness before the police finds him.

The story is filmed in the suitably melancholic autumn season in rainy Paris and enhanced by suitable score. The twist at the end came unexpectedly to me, but it makes a lot of sense. Very good, no frills, believable story.