Jean Vautrin (17 May 1933 – 16 June 2015), real name Jean Herman, was a French writer, filmmaker and film critic. After studying literature at Auxerre, he took first place in the Id'HEC competition. He studied French literature at the University of Bombay; he became assistant director to Roberto Rossellini. Back in France, he produced five feature films. He became famous among the general public in 1989, winning the Prix Goncourt for his novel Un grand pas vers le bon Dieu. He also won the 1986 Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle for Baby-boom. In 1987, with writer Dan Franck, he created a press ph...
Farewell, Friend
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.
