Safari diamants

I saw this film under the title Special Correspondent. The print I saw was dubbed into English as well as panned and scanned; however, the film's mediocre plot would only have benefited so much from a better screening.

The plot has a bored suit and tie businessman (Jean-Louis Trintignant) one day leaving his car in traffic and abandoning his respected life. The man drifts for a couple days until he happens to meet a criminal planning a diamond heist. This seems like an exciting change of pace to the bored hero, so he joins the thief and another man for what promises to be an easy, inside job. The heist goes wrong when the three are double crossed by the men who set up the heist. The former businessman finds himself alone still alive. On the run, he is picked up by the girlfriend (Marie-Jose Nat, the director's wife) of the man who double crossed the hero and his partners. She wants the former businessman to rob her boyfriend and his men, one of whom is a stone killer.

This is familiar territory. The film gets more familiar as the businessman and the gangster's girl go on the run to Monte Carlo with the police and the unstoppable killer in pursuit. A simple plot is not always a hindrance in a thriller, but Diamond Safari is simply too pokey, stopping for dull romantic interludes (like the lovers strolling in the countryside). I usually like Jean-Louis Trintignant, and he is fine here. However, Marie-Jose Nat does not generate enough sultriness for the viewer to understand why men are so willing to follow her. Diamond Safari (or Special Correspondent) is not terrible, just overly familiar, the kind of movie one watches with half interest on a lazy afternoon and forgets about two days later.