“The Sicilian Clan”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Sicilian Clan ({{lang-fr|Le clan des Siciliens}}) is a 1969 French gangster film^[5] directed by Henri Verneuil and written by José Giovanni, Pierre Pélégri and Verneuil, based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton. The film was largely marketed by casting together three of the leading French actors of the time:^[6] Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, and Alain Delon.^[7] The film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Plot

In Paris, jewel thief Roger Sartet escapes from custody with the help of the Manalese, a small-time but well-organised Sicilian Mafia clan led by patriarch Vittorio and which includes his sons Aldo and Sergio, and son-in-law Luigi. While in prison, Sartet got to know an electrician who was involved in the setting up of an extensive security system at a diamond exhibition in Rome — the electrician returned home early, unannounced, caught his wife in bed with a lover and shot them. Unaccustomed to prison life, he made friends with Sartet and bit-by-bit supplied him with details of the exhibition.

Vittorio and a fellow Mafiose, Tony Nicosia of New York City, go to the exhibition only to find that some changes have been made that make a simple robbery more difficult. Furthermore, the exhibition hall is just down the road from the local police station. Nicosia instead comes up with a plan to steal the diamonds while they are en route to another exhibition in New York and sends over Jack, an alcoholic, in order to pass on the details.

Meanwhile, Commissaire Le Goff pursues Sartet with unbridled determination — the gangster having killed two of his men in cold blood during an earlier arrest. Guessing that Sartet needs false papers in order to leave the country, Le Goff's enquiries lead him to the Manalese and their arcade game business which serves as a cover for their more illegal activities. While he questions Vittorio, Sartet slips out of the building in a car, right under Le Goff's nose.

Jeanne, the wife of Vittorio's son Aldo and an able crook in her own right, becomes increasingly fascinated by Sartet. She has always felt out of place as the only French person in the Sicilian clan. While hiding out in a villa near the Italian border she attracts Sartet's attention by sunbathing nude but as they kiss they are caught in the act by Luigi's six-year-old son Roberto. Jeanne gets the boy to promise not to mention it to anyone.

In Rome, the gang subtly kidnap Edward Evans, the insurance man sent to oversee the transfer of the diamonds to New York. Sartet takes his place and joins the other officials accompanying the diamonds on a regular scheduled flight to New York via Paris. Among the passengers joining the plane in Paris are Jack, Jeanne, Vittorio and his sons. Things almost go wrong when Evans' wife turns up and even boards the plane looking for her husband, but Vittorio leads her to believe that her husband's same numbered flight is due for tomorrow.

Having tried to contact her husband's hotel in Rome and being told that he has left, Mrs Evans goes to the police. At police HQ, she identifies Sartet as one of the men she saw on the plane while landed in Paris airport. Meanwhile, the plane is making its descent towards New York when the gang hijacks the aircraft, holding its crew at gunpoint, with Jack, a former pilot, taking over the co-pilot's seat.

Warned of Sartet's imminent arrival in the United States, the local police race to the airport while the plane lands on a highway which has been closed off by gang's local members. Other Mafia men are waiting in cars unload the diamonds from the plane and split up, Jack for Canada and the Manalese for Paris. Intending to move to Veracruz, Sartet hides out in New York while awaiting his share of the proceeds.

Back home, late one evening, the Manalese are watching a film on TV which includes a scene of a couple making out on a beach. Roberto points at the screen and exclaims that it looks just what Sartet has done with Jeanne. Jeanne denies the affair but the others tend to believe it. They lure Sartet back to Paris, to cash there his share of the loot. Jeanne calls Sartet's sister Monique to warn him of the due trap. Monique await him at the airport but when he fails to turn up, she learns that he boarded an earlier flight.

Sartet contacts Vittorio, for his share in the jewelry loot, and has no problem to meet him, accompanied by Jeanne, on a quiet road outside town, where once given the due amount, Vittorio shoots both him and Jeanne dead. There having left behind both bodies, along with Sartet's money for the police to take care of, Vittorio returns home to be arrested there by Le Goff.

Cast

Connections to other films

Reception

In the book French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present, author Rémi Fournier Lanzoni wrote, "This gangster film reinvented the classic gangster genre, elevating it to a higher level with its hard-boiled acting, deep character studies, and attractive photography."^[8]

Box office

According to Fox records the film required $7,925,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $9,250,000 so made a profit to the studio.^[9]

References

1. ^¹²{{cite web |title=The Sicilian Clan (1970) |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90068/The-Sicilian-Clan/ |website=Turner Classic Movies |publisher=Turner Broadcasting System (WarnerMedia) |accessdate=8 October 2018}}
2. ^Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0-8108-4244-1}}. p256
3. ^"Big Rental Films of 1970", Variety, 6 January 1971 p 11
4. ^Box office information for film at Box Office Story
5. ^¹²³⁴{{cite web |title=Le Clan Des Siciliens (1968) |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a7af2a7 |website=British Film Institute |accessdate=6 October 2018}}
6. ^ Michael L. Stephens Gangster films- 1996 "A surprising success in the United States (where it grossed over $2 million), The Sicilian Clan was an enormous box office success in Europe, and remains one of the all-time moneymakers in France. It is yet another variation on the heist gone wrong"
7. ^{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/110044/The-Sicilian-Clan/overview |title=New York Times: The Sicilian Clan |accessdate=2008-09-03|work=NY Times | first=Vincent | last=Canby}}
8. ^¹{{cite book |last1=Fournier Lanzoni |first1=Rémi |title=French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present |date=22 October 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=United States |isbn=978-1-5013-0307-4 |pages=266–267 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=xpBZCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA267&dq=the+sicilian+clan&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjE8amJjvbdAhWMx7wKHec2DGsQ6AEINjAD#v=onepage&q=the%20sicilian%20clan&f=false}}
9. ^{{cite book|page=329|title=The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox|last=Silverman|first=Stephen M|year=1988|publisher=L. Stuart}}

External links