Jean Herman, born in 1933, is a French director and writer known for his contributions to cult cinema. He directed and wrote Farewell, Friend (1968), a film that blends action with existential themes, and helmed The Butterfly Affair (1971), a tale rich in emotional complexity. His work reflects a nuanced understanding of character and narrative, drawing from his literary background. Herman's films continue to resonate within the realms of exploitation and art cinema, marking him as a significant figure in the French film landscape.
Farewell, Friend
Dino enters an office building over Christmas weekend intending to return stolen bonds. Franz follows expecting a fortune, leaving both men trapped below ground as the job twists into a setup involving missing money, murder, and divided loyalties. Demobilised after the war in Algeria, legionnaire Franz Propp tries to get army doctor Dino Barran to go to the Congo with him. But Barran feels he has to help the beautiful Isabelle Moreau, whose lover he accidentally killed in Algeria. She wants him to take a job in a big firm in Paris, where his assistant will be an attractive girl called Dominique Austerlitz, and over the Christmas break to secretly return some missing documents to the safe. Propp, who has found work as a pimp, follows Barran into the building and overhears that there are also millions in wages in the safe. He wants the money, while Barran merely wants to fulfil his promise to Isabelle. After much arguing and fighting the two unwillingly co-operate and get the safe open, to find the money has been taken. They also find they are locked in the strong room with no light, air, food or drink. Escaping eventually through a shaft, they find a security guard shot dead. Successfully getting out of the building, they try to catch a flight at the airport but Propp is caught by the police. Despite intensive interrogation, he does not talk. Meanwhile, Barran, who has persuaded Dominique to shelter him, offers to talk to the police. They follow him to the scene of the crime, where Dominique is to look for evidence of his innocence, when Isabelle appears with a gun. In a fracas she shoots a policeman, whereupon both girls are killed by a police machine gun. It was the two of them who had taken the money, killed the guard, and tricked Barran into being their fall guy. After serving together in the French Foreign Legion, a mercenary and a doctor leave the service and go their separate ways. Later, they are reunited and become involved with a caper involving millions in a high-security safe. The two men become locked in during a holiday weekend as the attempt to crack the safe's combination. Two former French Foreign Legionnaires reluctantly work together to break into a corporation's vault, but discover that they are being set up to take the fall for a robbery-and-murder plot.
