BORSALINO Movie Review

You could say that Borsalino is an example of style over substance—if there were any substance. Come to think of it, the picture doesn't have much style, either. Fortunately, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon are asked to provide just about everything that this buddy-buddy comic gangster picture has to offer, and that turns out to be enough to have even spawned a sequel (Borsalino and Co.). Belmondo and Delon portray rival mobsters in 1930s Marseilles, and they dress better than their Chicago counterparts. The gunplay and mob violence is all of the wink-wink variety, the vintage cars are colorful and shiny, and the catchy, bouncy, incessant score is used to fill in any holes in the plot or gaps between wardrobe changes. All in all, Borsalino is harmless—though I can't quite bring myself to call it fun—but Belmondo and Delon, sartorially splendid, obviously fond of each other, and in their prime, are something to see.

NEXT STOP … Bob le Flambeur, Bugsy Malone, My New Partner

1970 (R) 124m/C FR Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Michel Bouquet, Catherine Rouvel, Francoise Christophe, Corinne Marchand; D: Jacques Deray; W: Jacques Deray, Jean Cau, Claude Sautet, Jean-Claude Carriere; C: Jean-Jacques Tarbes; M: Claude Bolling. VHS PAR