The Sewers of Paradise (1979)

Simply Perfect

I'll tell you why so serious

Good concept, poorly executed.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This crime drama tells the true story of Albert Spaggiari. Spaggiari (Francis Huster) masterminded one of the biggest bank jobs in modern history when he and a group of underworld types dug through the sewers to break into the Société Générale bank in Nice, France. The group, who broke in over a holiday weekend, eventually took 60 million francs. The film follows Spaggiari from the time he devises the scheme to act itself and ends with his astounding escape from custody. Huster is quite good as the likable thief and there is a fine supporting cast. Director Jose Giovanni gets a little bit political at times but it is never heavy handed. Having worked previously with both Delon and Belmondo, he handles the action well although a lot of it is routinely following the guys as they dig. The Spaggiari story also provided the groundwork for THE GREAT RIVERIA BANK ROBBERY from the same year. In that one, Ian (DEADWOOD) McShane plays the Spaggiari role as "The Brain."

This is a reasonably diverting heist movie – apparently based on a true story – that suffers from a somewhat insipid lead and some poorly sketched characters. Francis Huster plays Albert Spaggiari, camera shop owner and professional villain, who hatches a plot to relieve a bank of the contents of 4,000 of its deposit boxes over one weekend by tunnelling through the sewers to reach the vault. Sadly for Huster, he is unable to lay his hands on the laser he requires and has to make do with welding gear so that he only manages to loot around 300 boxes, which are filled with all manner of booty from gold bars to compromising photographs.Security has become so sophisticated these days that it's now unlikely that anyone would be able to rob a bank in such a manner. Perhaps that means the bank heist genre is fated to become something of a period piece as we move away from the 20th century and towards a plastic credit society. Watching some lone hacker hunched over his PC as he siphons funds from some electronic account on the other side of the world just doesn't have the same air of derring-do as these traditional techniques.Half the fun of these films is watching how the plan unravels – usually after the robbers believe they have got away with their swag – but with this film the capture of Spaggiari is somewhat banal – although I can't imagine any police force in the western world securing a conviction by spiking their suspect's coffee with drugs.A decent time-filler, then, but not a film that ranks amongst the best of heist movies.

It's difficult, while watching this Giovanni flick ,not to think of Jacques Becker's "le trou" (1959) ,the script of which he wrote.But whereas the heroes of Becker's masterpiece were digging a hole to escape from jail,the "heroes" of " les egouts" are digging a tunnel to rob a bank.The characters are not endearing ,former firebrands ,although the lead rather recalls some kind of "true life" Arsène Lupin ,but a humorless Lupin.One does not see why one should take an interest in those men (and woman).Robin Hoods ,they definitely are not.NB.Another version was made at about the same time "the great Riviera bank robbery" starring Ian McShane.The two versions were drastically different since that one showed the hero's paramilitary activities.

I am a lucky person because I have seen this wonderful movie. Starting from reality, Josè Giovanni turn a sharp, fast and essential movie about relationships between people from different lives, experiences and countries. These men are all working hard together to achieve their goal: steal the money from Societe Generale Bank in Nice (France). The actors are really clever to interprete even details of criminals - thieves and in particular, Francis Huster as Albert Spaggiari. It is also a film about deep friendship at the end when Albert Spaggiari escape from Prosecutor office (downstairs his friend is waiting for him on a motorbike). In real life, Albert Spaggiari jumping out of the Prosecutor office windows landed on the roof of a car parked just below (after a few months, he sent a money cheques to the owner of the car to repay the damages). Brilliant.