San Sebastián Film Festival to showcase José Giovanni retrospective

The 74th San Sebastián Film Festival (September 18‑26) will present a comprehensive retrospective of French crime writer, novelist, screenwriter and director José Giovanni. Twenty films will be screened, covering almost all of Giovanni’s own directorial work from 1967 to 2001 and eight additional titles he wrote for filmmakers such as Jacques Becker, Jean‑Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Claude Sautet, Henri Verneuil and Robert Enrico.

The program is organized by the festival together with the Filmoteca Vasca (Basque Film Archive) and the Filmoteca Española (Spanish Film Archive). It will be accompanied by the publication of the book *José Giovanni. No hay vida plena sin piedad* by Felipe Cabrerizo, edited by critic Quim Casas, which examines Giovanni’s complete oeuvre and the controversial aspects of his life, including his role during the German occupation of France and his attempted prison escape.

Giovanni (born Joseph Antoine Roger Damiani, 1923‑2004) was a leading figure of the golden age of French police cinema. He later became a Swiss citizen. The retrospective offers a rare opportunity to view his full body of work and to reassess his impact on crime cinema.