Legitimate Violence

Jean-Patrick Manchette was France's supreme crime writer—an unparalleled novelist who tore into his country’s film industry with hard-edged, sharp-tongued screenplays about men driven to their darkest depths. His talents are on full display in Légitime violence, which follows Martin (the late Claude Brasseur) as he takes the law into his own hands after a violent hold-up results in his family’s death. When the police fail to track down the killers, Martin seeks the help of a neo-fascist organization, embarking on a brutal mission to bring his family justice. Political, razor-sharp, and at times disturbing, this violent classic from French director Serge Leroy is a potent critique of right-wing populism in Western Europe.

This screening is presented in conjunction with New York Review Books, who will publish a translation of Manchette’s novel Skeletons in the Closet on November 7.