CANICULE a.k.a. DOG DAY (1984: Dir. Yves Boisset)
Ten years after Prime Cut and a now aged Lee Marvin was still being chased through the wheat, albeit a continent away. Canicule is a rarely-seen French lament to the traditional gangster genre, and Marvin's last top-billed cinematic performance. Turning 60 years old, Marvin knew his career as a star was over, so he wisely accepted the lead role in this adaptation of a novel by Jean Herman, an author and occasional filmmaker whose style could best be described as the French equivalent of Southern Gothic. It had been the dream of director Yves Boisset to make a film based on Herman's unique oeuvre but in order to portray the main character of a fugitive American bank robber in rural France he needed an iconic Hollywood tough guy to provide instant familiarity and gravitas. Once again, and for the final time, Marvin slipped into the tailored suit of a hard-bitten hoodlum, but this time the violence now took on the same haggard desperation that was written over every inch of his deeply lined visage. To escape the helicopters closing in on him he takes refuge in a farm inhabited by a degenerate family whose greed and lasciviousness, make Marvin's baleful brigand look like a clergyman by comparison. They are the Gallic equivalent of Prime Cut's redneck thugs but unlike their American counterparts these French farm folk are maddeningly impulsive, forcing Marvin to question his criminal code of honour in the wake of their shocking unpredictability. It was an appropriate swan song for the well-worn Marvin, playing a man, much like the actor himself, out of fashion with the cynicism of a new generation. DVD REGION 1 & 2
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