Body of My Enemy

Verneuil began his career as a minor film noir director :"des gens sans importance" was certainly an interesting effort.In the sixties,he became the king of the box office with the likes of "melodie en sous-sol" and "le clan des siliciens.These were commercial entertaining flicks.

With "peur sur la ville" ,one of his best thrillers,he began to show more ambition.

With "le corps de mon ennemi" he thought he could become (why not?) a "meaningful" director in the continuum of (roughly ) Clouzot-to Cayatte-to Chabrol-to Boisset.But he is not original enough to justify the banality of his insights and to the extent that his films (this one and the next one "I comme Icare") are meant to be political statements,they are cowardly..The rivalry Blier/Belmondo's father (roughly the right-wing baddie versus the good leftish guy) is given a treatment which stands no danger of shocking or raising questions.Even the trick (it's raining photographs during the meeting) is borrowed from Clouzot's "le corbeau" (1943) The first part ,however,includes good scenes:Belmondo entering the bourgeois world is sometimes interesting.He gets good support from Blier and earnest thespian Marie-France Pisier .The best is probably the dinner where all the posh people exchange trivialities and Pisier's mother ,a bubble head woman ,takes the biscuit.Unfortunately most of the characters disappear during the second part (the number one nightclub)and when they come back,for a monopoly game(!)it's too late.

The "grammar" of the story,its only originality ,is that it features three tenses :present (Belmondo's come back and his revenge),past (the trial;very short sequences) and past perfect (why Belmondo was in jail).