José Giovanni

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 o…

Movies & TV Shows

1. Symphony for a Massacre (1963) — Moreau
2. The Repentant (2002)
3. Champs-Elysées (1982) — Self
4. Vivement dimanche (1998) — Self
5. Lino Ventura, la part intime (2018) — Self (archive footage)
6. Claude Sautet or the Invisible Magic (2003) — Self
7. Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes (2002) — Self
8. 30 millions d'amis (1976) — Self
9. Spécial cinéma (1974) — Self
10. Les Rendez-vous du dimanche (1975) — Self
11. Ciné regards (1978) — Self

Directed

1. Two Men in Town (1973) — Director
2. The Pariah (1972) — Director
3. Last Known Address (1970) — Director
4. The Ruffian (1983) — Director
5. The Gypsy (1975) — Director
6. Birds of Prey (1968) — Director
7. Boomerang (1976) — Director
8. The Old Fox (1977) — Director
9. The Sewers of Paradise (1979) — Director
10. Among Wolves (1985) — Director
11. One Way Ticket (1971) — Director
12. My Friend the Traitor (1988) — Director
13. Law of Survival (1967) — Director
14. My Father Saved My Life (2001) — Director
15. Une robe noire pour un tueur (1981) — Director
16. Where Did Tom Go? (1971) — Director
17. Crime à l'altimètre (1996) — Director
18. L'Irlandaise (1991) — Director