Director: Jacques Deray
Country: France
Award: none
Movement: none
Borsalino is a 1970 French gangster film directed by Jacques Deray and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon and Catherine Rouvel. It was entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2009, Empire named it No.19 in a poll of "The 20 Greatest Gangster Movies You've Never Seen… Probably". A sequel, Borsalino & Co., was released in 1974 with Alain Delon in the leading role. The film is based on real-life gangsters Paul Carbone and François Spirito, who collaborated with Nazi Germany during the occupation of France in World War II (though this is not mentioned in the film). In 1930, in Marseille, a gangster named Siffredi is released from prison and searches for his former girlfriend, Lola. He finds her with Capella, another gangster. The two men fight over her but become friendly and form a partnership, fixing horseraces and prizefights. They are contacted by Rinaldi, a lawyer who works for Marello and Poli, the two crime bosses who control all the organized crime in Marseille. Rinaldi suggests that Siffredi and Capella should seize control of Marseille's fish market and take it away from Marello. They succeed but they become too ambitious and try to take control of the meat market which is controlled by Poli. He tries to have Capella and Siffredi killed but they succeed in killing him instead. Rinaldi is killed by another gangster named The Dancer. Capella and Siffredi establish themselves as the new bosses of Marseille's underworld. Afraid of future fights with Siffredi, Capella decides to leave Marseille: but he is shot by an assassin and dies in the arms of his friend.
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