José Giovanni

Joseph Damiani (22 June 1923 – 24 April 2004), known by the pen name José Giovanni, was a French writer, filmmaker, and convicted criminal. He became known for his realistic, gritty crime novels which drew upon his own personal experiences and knowledge of the French underworld.

As a young man, Giovanni was a fascist activist and Nazi collaborator during World War II, also becoming affiliated with organized crime during the same period. In 1948, he received the death penalty for his involvement in a murder case, though the sentence was commuted. Following his release from prison, Giovanni became a popular author of crime fiction beginning in the 1960s. Several of his novels were adapted into films by directors like Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Claude Sautet. Giovanni also wrote original screenplays, and eventually turned to directing, helming some 17 films between 1967 and 2001. Many films written or directed by Giovanni, as well as films adapted from his books, were box-office successes, and some came to be regarded as classics of French cinema.

Giovanni's works often praise masculine friendships and advocated the confrontation of the individual against the world. Though he never concealed his criminal past, he was always careful to hide his links with the Nazi occupiers of France during World War II. His past as a collaborator was eventually exposed in 1993 by the Swiss newspapers Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures.