This is most probably the B/W film made from the book with
same title
written by Boris Vian, famous French author. He used an alias
(Vernon
Sullivan?- and presented it as a book translated from an
American author-
Vian liked mystification and good practical jokes) and it was
quickly
adapted for film. Vian was treating this as a
pastiche/caricature of Noir,
and the film itself in its form was a pastiche of the French
new wave style,
with deliberate intention to shock.
I cannot find my references now (I'm moving), but when the
film was issued
in France first, it created immediately a lane of protests,
and if I
remember correctly was banned by the censors for a
while.
Totally Noir detail: Vian died of an heart attack when
visioning the rushes
of this film.
However as some of you may already know, Vian was a very
eclectic creator,
and innovator in mainstream French literature after WW2; he
was a Jazz
musician as well (trumpet), wrote liberal and protest songs,
was a critic
for music and ... translator of American HB and SF. He was an
engineer by
profession.
E.Borgers
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES
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