José Giovanni (French-Swiss writer and fim-maker) Add a review

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

A former collaborationist and street criminal who at one time was sentenced to death, Giovanni became a popular author of crime fiction beginning in the 1960s. Several of his novels were adapted to films by directors like Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Claude Sautet. He also wrote screenplays for several others, and eventually turned to directing, helming some 17 films between 1967 and 2001.

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 collaborationism was eventually exposed in 1993 by the Swiss newspapers Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures.