Les Egouts Du Paradis [DVD]

The ingenious 1976 robbery of the supposedly impregnable Société Générale bank in Nice by Albert Spaggiari has inspired no fewer than four not particularly successful films - Sewers of Gold, Loophole and most recently Sans Arme, Ni Haine, Ni Violence, though perhaps none quite so intriguing as the first, Les Egouts du Paradis, based on Spaggiari's own self-aggrandizing memoir about the robbery and directed by former criminal Jose Giovanni. Unfortunately Giovanni's best films aren't those he directed but those based on his best-selling novels, and this is never quite as compelling as it should be. The heist was certainly imaginative: faced with a state-of-the-art vault and alarm system, Spaggieri and his accomplices tunnelled into it through the sewer system, spending the Bastille Day weekend holiday breaking open the safety deposit boxes, cooking, sleeping and leaving incriminating photos pinned to the walls before making a clean getaway. Unfortunately the film offers (some) inside information but no insights and despite perfectly capturing the cramped and claustrophobic feel, it's a rather unexciting affair. There's no conflict, no dramatic dynamic - they're just one big happy band of thieves working their way to the score of a lifetime, with the running time padded out by the odd bit of purple prose in the narration and a clumsy subplot with Lila Kedrova's ailing bombmaker that only hints at the more interesting aspects of the crime.

Spaggiari was a member of the French OAS terrorist organisation and was also involved with Pinochet's secret police, while one of the gang had been involved in an assassination attempt on De Gaulle, and the robbery was a fundraiser to buy arms. While the film does acknowledge that it was these guns that led to his arrest, it's vague about who or what they were for. It also has a tendency (not so surprising considering the source material) to take Spaggiari at his word: he may not have been the brains behind the heist but was certainly fond of taking the credit, and some of that ego rubs off on the film, which plays him more as a likeably cheeky criminal mastermind than the more dubious character he probably was. But it's a decent enough how-they-did-it heist movie even if it doesn't delve into the details of why they did it, delivered with some polish.

Not much in the way of extras on the UK PAL DVD - just a stills gallery, text biographies and trailers for Les Bijoutiers de Clair de Lune, Les Diaboliques, How to Be a Woman and Not Die in the Attempt, Rain and Okay - but a decent subtitled transfer.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars