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Jean-Patrick Manchette

Jean-Patrick Manchette

Writing

Biography

Jean-Patrick Manchette (19 December 1942, Marseille – 3 June 1995, Paris) was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the seventies and early eighties, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of that period. His stories are violent explorations of the human condition and French society. Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture. Eight of his eleven novels have been translated into English. Two were published by San Francisco publisher City Lights Books—3 To Kill (from the French Le petit bleu de la côte ouest) and The Prone Gunman (from the French La Position du tireur couché). Five other novels, Fatale, The Mad and the Bad (from the French O dingos, O chateaux!), Ivory Pearl (from the French La Princesse du Sang), Nada, and No Room at the Morgue were released by New York Review Books Classics in 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released an English-language version of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's adaptation of Le petit bleu de la côte ouest, under the new English title West Coast Blues. Fantagraphics released a second Tardi adaptation, of "La Position du tireur couché" (under the title "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot" ) in 2011, and a third one, of "Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!" (under the title "Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell") in 2015. Manchette was a fan of comics, and his praised translation of Alan Moore's Watchmen into French remains in print. Born December 19, 1942, in Marseille, where the war had temporarily led his parents, Jean-Patrick Manchette spent most of his early years in Malakoff, in Paris's southern suburbs. Growing up in a relatively modest family (his father started out as a factory worker, later to become an electronics sales executive), he was an excellent pupil and from an early age showed keen interest in writing. During his childhood and adolescence, he wrote hundreds of pages of pastiches of war memoirs and science fiction novels, gradually turning to attempts at "serious" fiction. A compulsive reader, passionate lover of American film and jazz (he played the tenor and alto saxophone), he also developed a lifelong interest in chess and other strategy games. While his parents envisioned a teaching career for him, to their great dismay he dropped out of the ENS without graduating, and decided to try and earn a living writing. He went to England to teach French for one semester in a college for the blind at Worcester, then returned to France. A left-wing activist during the War of Algeria in the early 1960s, he was at that time very much influenced by the writings of the Situationist International. ... Source: Article "Jean-Patrick Manchette" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

Apostrophes
8.5

Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.

Apostrophes

1975
The Gunman
5.8

Eight years after fleeing the Congo following his assassination of that country's minister of mining, former assassin Jim Terrier is back, suffering from PTSD and digging wells to atone for his violent past. After an attempt is made on his life, Terrier flies to London to find out who wants him dead -- and why. Terrier's search leads him to a reunion with Annie, a woman he once loved, who is now married to an oily businessman with dealings in Africa.

The Gunman

2015
Let the Corpses Tan
6.2

With a heavy haul of 250 kilograms of gold bullion, the grizzled criminal mastermind, Rhino, and his ruthless gang of cutthroats, head to a ramshackle retreat somewhere in the Mediterranean to lay low on a scorching day of July. However, the unexpected and rather unwelcome arrival of the bohemian writer, Bernier, his muse, Luce, along with a pair of no-joke gendarmes further complicates things, as the frail allegiances will soon be put to the test.

Let the Corpses Tan

2017
For a Cop's Hide
5.8

Victim of manipulation, Cop Choucas is wanted for two murders and searched for by every cop in town.

For a Cop's Hide

1981
The Nada Gang
6.0

Nada, named after a gang of Spanish anarchists, is a small, confused band of French terrorists. They kidnap the American ambassador after one of his regular visits to an exclusive brothel. The gang starts to quarrel amongst themselves as to the diplomat's fate, while the police purge suspects in their attempts to destroy the Nada faction. As the violence escalates on both sides, the States and the terrorists are forced to use one another's methods in an increasingly desperate and relentless conflict.

The Nada Gang

1974
Act of Aggression
4.8

After his wife and daughter are raped and killed by a motorbike gang, a man sets out to take revenge.

Act of Aggression

1975
Time Masters
7.2

On planet Perdide, an attack of giant hornets leaves young Piel alone in a wrecked car with his dying father. A mayday message reaches their friend Jaffar, an adventurer travelling through space. Onboard Jaffar’s shuttle are the renegade Prince Matton, his fiancée, and Silbad, who knows Perdide well. Thus begins an incredible race across space to save Piel.

Time Masters

1982
The Shock
5.3

Martin Terrier wants to quit his job as a hired hitman, but his organized crime employers are unwilling to see him turned out to pasture, Terrier knows too much, and he is still useful to the organization. He escapes to the countryside where he meets Claire, and the two soon fall in love. Back in Paris to confront his employers, Terrier learns that they've stolen all his money from the bank. They give him an ultimatum—do one last job for them and he gets his money and his freedom...

The Shock

1982
Three Men to Kill
6.1

A man helps the victim of an auto accident, not realizing that the man has actually been shot. The men who shot him are now after the man who helped him, in order to eliminate him as a potential witness. Soon they are killing everyone he even comes in contact with in order to get him.

Three Men to Kill

1980
Cover Up
5.5

A well-known business lawyer is shot dead in the courthouse. A commissioner of the Criminal Brigade is in charge of the investigation and is helped by a journalist.

Cover Up

1983
Legitimate Violence
5.2

In the course of a violent hold-up at Deauville station, several innocent bystanders are shot dead. The victims include a politician, Robert Andréani, and three members of the same family. Devastated by the death of his wife, daughter and mother, Martin Modot resolves that their killers will be brought to justice. When the police fail to make any progress in their investigation, he decides to take matters into his own hands, with the support of a neo-fascist vigilante organization.

Legitimate Violence

1982
The Probability Factor
4.0

Fred works for an insurance company as a computer engineer. He is bored with enduring the trials of his shrewish wife, so, after using actuarial tables to calculate the most common means of death, he cleverly prepares the family bathroom and brings about her demise. For a while he is content with his new freedom, but then he recognizes that a friend is in a similar situation.

The Probability Factor

1976
Mad Enough to Kill
6.8

Julie Ballenger has spent five years in a psychiatric clinic. Leaving the clinic apparently cured, she is hired by a wealthy industrialist, Mostri, to work as a governess to his young nephew, Thomas. The boy is heir to a huge fortune after the recent death of his wealthy parents who died in mysterious circumstances. During a visit to a park, Julie and Thomas are kidnapped at gun-point and driven away to deserted quarry. The two hostages manage to escape, but are closely pursued by an armed killer...

Mad Enough to Kill

1975
No image
5.2

A modern-day Socrates leaves behind his life as a philosopher to live off the land. When a police inspector is assigned to follow the man and question his motives, the cop gets caught up in the charming philosophy of the man who has left his material possessions behind. He encounters a pretty young woman and her nihilistic boyfriend, the latter who makes a living with his psychedelic side shows. The boyfriend gets the newspapers to print the philosopher's thoughts, prompting him to acquire a bevy of believers. There is some nudity in this comical thought-provoking story, but the main focus remains the words of the man who left behind creature comforts to find himself.

Le Socrate

1968
No image
N/A

French short adaptation of Herman Melville's classic. The employee of a lawyer is in a mental hospital following a scandal. Some time later, he finds his employer.

Bartleby

1970
No image
N/A

Aimée, a coldhearted grifter and modern capitalism's soul, is a professional killer who aims to uncover old grudges and engineer new opportunities in a backwater burg. However, her passion leads her to become the avenging angel of her own nihilism, destroying a society of destroyers.

Fatale

Polar
5.8

This film noir tends to stay within very conventional plot lines, as the narration by the main protagonist, private detective Eugene Tarpon Jean-François Balmer, recites a dreary litany of how he wanted to chuck his profession until an attractive woman shows up asking him to investigate the murder of her roommate, a porno star. Soon Tarpon is up to his neck in trouble: the police, gangsters, and the victim's lover are all out to get him.

Polar

1984
Love + Fear = Torment
4.3

"Love + fear = Torment" exposes the secret world of the French model studios, and the men who try to corrupt them. Mobsters become involved when fifty-thousand dollars worth of uncut gems are stolen. A model studio becomes terrorized as one of the models innocently befriends one of the mobsters.

Love + Fear = Torment

1967
The Slave
3.7

While entertaining her lover one weekend, a woman's marriage is threatened by the sudden appearance of her evil step-brother. Beyond using her home to hide from the police after his recent heist, he also blackmails her in to a horrendous weekend filled with debauchery and violence. After her ordeal she is anything but bored.

The Slave

1967