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José Giovanni

Writing

José Giovanni

José Giovanni is a writer born on June 22, 1923 in Paris, France. He died on April 24, 2004, aged 80. He is known for Le Trou, The Sicilian Clan and Le Deuxième Souffle. GloboWatch shows where to watch one of his movies and TV shows, country by country.

Known for
Writing
Born
June 22, 1923
Place of birth
Paris, France
Died
April 24, 2004
Also known as
Jose Giovanni · Joseph Damiani

Biography

José Giovanni (22 June 1923, Paris, France – 24 April 2004, Lausanne, Switzerland) was the pseudonym of Joseph Damiani, a French writer and film-maker of Corsican origin who became a naturalized Swiss citizen in 1986. A former collaborationist and criminal who at one time was sentenced to death, Giovanni often drew his inspiration from personal experience or from real gangsters, such as Abel Danos in his 1960 film Classe tous risques, overlooking that they had been members of the French Gestapo. In his films as well as his novels, while praising masculine friendships and advocating the confrontation of the individual against the world, he often championed the underworld but was always careful to hide his own links with the Nazi occupiers of France during World War II. Of Corsican descent, Joseph Damiani received a good education, studying at the Collège Stanislas de Paris and the Lycée Janson de Sailly. His father, a professional gambler who was sentenced to a year in prison for running an illegal casino, owned a hotel in the French Alps in Chamonix. Joseph worked there as a young man and became fascinated by mountain climbing. From April to September 1943 Damiani was a member of Jeunesse et Montagne (Youth and Mountain) in Chamonix, part of the Vichy Government youth movement controlled by Pierre Laval. In February 1944 Damiani came to Paris and through his father's friend, the LVF leader Simon Sabiani, he joined Jacques Doriot's fascist French Popular Party (PPF). His maternal uncle, Ange Paul Santolini alias "Santos", who ran a restaurant patronized by the Gestapo, and his elder brother, Paul Damiani, a member of the Vichy paramilitary Milice, introduced Joseph into the Pigalle underworld. In March 1944 Joseph Damiani went to Marseille where he became a member of the German Schutzkorps (SK), an organization which hunted down Service du travail obligatoire - STO (Compulsory Work Service) dodgers. He served as bodyguard to its Marseille chief and took part in many arrests, often blackmailing his victims. In Lyon, in August 1944, posing as a German police officer along with an accomplice (Orloff, a Gestapo agent who was shot for treason at the Liberation), Damiani blackmailed Joseph Gourentzeig and his brother-in-law Georges Edberg, two Jews who were in hiding. Gourentzeig had bribed a member of the Milice - a friend of Damiani’s – in an attempt to secure his parents' release from a detention camp. They were not freed and Gourentzeig's father, Jacob, was shot by the Germans shortly after, on 21 August 1944, along with 109 Jewish hostages in the Bron (Lyon airport) massacre. After the Liberation in Paris on 18 May 1945, Joseph Damiani, his brother Paul, Georges Accad, a former Gestapo agent, and Jacques Ménassole, a former member of the Milice wearing a French Army lieutenant's uniform - all posing as Military Intelligence officers - abducted Haïm Cohen, a wine merchant, accusing him of being a black marketeer. He was tortured until he gave them the key to his safe and a check for 105,000 francs. He was then shot and his body thrown into the Seine. Joseph Damiani cashed the check at Barclay's Bank under the identity of "Count J. de Montreuil". ... Source: Article "José Giovanni" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Filmography

  1. 2018Lino Ventura, la part intimeas Self (archive footage)
  2. 2014Two Men in TownScreenplay
  3. 2007The Second WindNovel
  4. 2003Claude Sautet or the Invisible Magicas Self
  5. 2002Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudesas Self
  6. 2002The Repentant
  7. 2001My Father Saved My LifeDirector · Writer
  8. 1996Crime à l'altimètreDirector · Writer
  9. 1991L'IrlandaiseDirector
  10. 1988My Friend the TraitorDirector
  11. 1985Among WolvesDirector · Writer
  12. 1983The RuffianDirector · Writer · Novel
  13. 1981Une robe noire pour un tueurWriter · Director
  14. 1979The Sewers of ParadiseDirector · Writer
  15. 1978Ciné regardsas Self · 1 episode
  16. 1977The Old FoxDirector · Writer
  17. 1976BoomerangDirector · Writer
  18. 197630 millions d'amisas Self · 1 episode
  19. 1975The GypsyDirector · Novel · Screenplay
  20. 1973Two Men in TownDirector · Screenplay
  21. 1972The PariahDirector · Writer · Novel
  22. 1971Where Did Tom Go?Writer · Director
  23. 1971One Way TicketDirector · Screenplay
  24. 1970Last Known AddressDirector · Writer
  25. 1969The Sicilian ClanScreenplay
  26. 1968Ho !Novel
  27. 1968Birds of PreyDirector · Writer
  28. 1967Law of SurvivalDirector · Writer · Novel
  29. 1967The Last AdventureScreenplay · Novel
  30. 1966Le Deuxième SouffleWriter · Novel
  31. 1966To Skin a SpyWriter
  32. 1966The Man from MarrakechWriter
  33. 1965The Wise GuysNovel
  34. 1963Symphony for a Massacreas Moreau · Writer
  35. 1961A Man Named RoccaNovel
  36. 1960The Big RiskNovel
  37. 1960Le TrouNovel · Screenplay