Borsalino: The film poster obscures the relationship between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon

Borsalino: The film poster obscures the relationship between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon



Borsalino : meeting of two legends

Borsalino This is not the first collaboration between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon. Before 1970, in fact, the two had already made four films together (Be beautiful and silent, Famous loves, is Paris burning? AND Oh!). Having experienced parallel trajectories in terms of success, Bébel and Delon had, at the time, cordial relations. It was Delon who, in addition to having the idea for the film and choosing the director Jacques Deray, he wants to work with his “rival” of the time.

Indeed, Borsalino It was born from a discussion between Alain Delon and Jacques Deray during the filming of The swimming pool in 1968. At that time, the actor had finished reading the gangster novel Bandits in Marseille by Eugenio Saccomano. He therefore wants to adapt it to the cinema. And when Delon wants it, he gets it!

Borsalino
Borsalino ©Adel Productions

Borsalino It then retraces the adventures of François Capella and Roch Siffredi, two very friendly criminals, who will become the leading gangsters of the Marseille underworld. Thanks to the two headliners, The feature film was a great success in theaters with over 4.7 million viewers. An excellent score, considering that the film had received a lot of pressure from the “real” Marseille mafia, and had its budget cut by 17% following the devaluation of the currency in 1969. However, it was shortly before its release that the real problems arose.

The Manifesto of Discord

If during the filming of Borsalino Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon get along very well, it was during the promotion of the feature film that the argument occurred. A few days before the film’s release, in fact, the official poster sees Delon’s name appear twice: once as an actor and once as a producer (with the famous “Alain Delon presents”). This is too much for Bébel who believes he has found himself faced with a fait accompli and that it was not in the contract that Delon saw his name written twice on the poster (what’s more, above his own!).

Borsalino
Borsalino ©Adel Productions

In black rage, the star even decides not to attend the film’s premiere! Star whim? Ego touched? However, the two men get confused through the microphones, which paradoxically plays into the success Borsalino as the press will make sure to keep the legendary rivalry between them alive.

Later Bébel will go much further by taking the matter to court. Ubuesco? Yet, three years later, justice proves him right. It’s the end of a beautiful friendship between two men who will spend the next twenty years sulking in Booba-Kaaris mode. Plus there will be a sequel Borsalinotitled Borsalino&co. Alain Delon will be present, but without Jean-Paul Belmondo, whose character he plays is killed. Atmosphere.

The Peace Pipe

In the mid-90s the two men began to mend each other. This reconciliation is found on screen as they do not only meet in the credits of Simon Cinema’s One Hundred and One Nights by Agnès Varda, but above all they return to being the protagonists of the action comedy One chance in two (directed by Patrice Leconte, and also starring Vanessa Paradis). The film also has the good idea of ​​inserting some references to Borsalino.

From that moment on, the two actors will return to being friends and will no longer speak to each other about this contractual and legal problem. A beautiful friendship that will end on September 6, 2021, on the death of Bébel. A death that will completely shock Alain Delon, as he will express with emotion the following day Europe 1.

Source: Cine Serie

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