Having filmed Police Python 357 and La Menace, Alain Corneau wanted to shoot a realistic crime film, with the special intention of working with American hardboiled crime fiction writer Jim Thompson. Corneau chose Thompson’s 1954 novel A Hell of a Woman, and joined forces with screenwriter and novelist Georges Pérec to adapt it not only to the screen, but also to the French culture. For the lead role the filmmaker saw nobody but Patrick Dewaere, who soon became infatuated with the script and his character. With the addition of Myriam Boyer, Bernard Blier and Marie Trintignant, the cast was complete, and six weeks later shooting was finished on a budget of approximately half a million dollars.
Série noire introduces us to Franck, a door-to-door salesman in an unhappy marriage who meets a young girl called Mona, who’s forced to work as a prostitute by her vicious old aunt. After a string of misfortunes (the film’s title could be translated as “a streak of bad luck”), he decides to save Mona from her situation and start fresh. The only solution in his sight, of course, is the violent one. With a very strong performance from Dewaere and a clever, calculated decision by Corneau not to include any external music, this is a very interesting, dark and gripping film about loneliness. Série noire stands out as one of Corneau’s best, as well as one of the best adaptations of Jim Thompson ever made.
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