On ne meurt que deux fois aka He Died With His Eyes Open (1985) Paris Noir

Director Jacques Deray, Written by Jacques Deray and Michel Audiard, and based on a novel by Robin Cook, with additional dialog by Michel Audiard

Cinematography by Jean Penzer, Music composed by Claude Bolling.

The film stars Michel Serrault (Diabolique, Carambolages, La Gage Aux Folles, Mortelle randonnée) as Inspector Robert Staniland, Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter, Farewell My Lovely, Angel Heart) as Barbara Spark, Xavier Deluc as Marc Spark, Élisabeth Depardieu as Margo Berliner, Jean-Paul Roussillon as Léonce, Jean-Pierre Darroussin as Moulard, Julie Jézéquel as Sophie, Albert Delpy as the forensic scientist, Riton Liebman as Éric Berliner, Gérard Darmon as Jean-Loup Soeren, Jean-Pierre Bacri as the barman, and Jean Leuvrais as Le commissaire Bauman

Story

Night. Winter. Snow. Paris. We watch as a car slowly approaches a fence by some pillars that support an overpass. In the distance a red neon sign spells Metropolis. 

We cut to a low angle shot of the vehicle. The passenger door opens and a leg wearing black stockings and pump swings out and steps in the snow covering the street. 

Cut to the opposite side of the car and a man's feet appears. Keeping close to the vehicle we see the truck open, and revealed is a man covered in blood. He appears to still be alive. 

Philippe Auge as Charles Berliner

Cut to a track-scape. Its snowing lightly. A morning commuter train on one of the six tracks visible sends plumes of loose snow outwards as it passes our viewpoint. Electric catenary wires with their supports dominates a snowy gray sky. 

We pan to two gendarmes looking downwards we cut to a body laying face down in the snow covering the ballast. He's wearing gray trousers and dark coat. His eyes are open, his head is bloodied. 

We cut to a dark haired man wearing a black trilby, stooped over looking down. He's Bauman, The Superintendent of Police.

Jean Leuvrais as Le commissaire Bauman  

We see the rest of his squad doing their procedural evidence search, photographing, etc., etc. The chief homicide inspector thinks he's some derelict, while Inspector Robert Staniland, who is assigned to this case, reaches down pulls back the dead man's pants cuff and points out that he doesn't think he's a bum just from the designer spats he's wearing on his shoes. 

Superintendent Bauman: Frankly, I don't care he's just a bum.

Robert Staniland: A bum who wears designer spats can't be just a bum.

Superintendent Bauman: He found them in a dumpster.

Robert Staniland: These spats in a dumpster? Superintendent, your career advancement is a mystery to me.

Superintendent Bauman: Don't piss me off Staniland.

Robert explains to a colleague to look and the edge of the trim and the quality of the buttons. When the Superintendent asks who could the bum be. Robert reading from an I.D. reads off his name. Charles Berliner, Musician. Regardless the Superintendent wants a report by 1P.M. and this case solved as soon as possible. 

Once the Chief has departed Robert remarks that he's a jerk only caring about cases that make big headlines. Two gendarmes make small talk that they hope the guy died quickly, Staniland replies that he doesn't think so because the dead mans eyes are open as if "he wanted to keep a memory."

Michel Serrault as Inspector Robert Staniland, lt.

We get next a scene at the morgue where the forensic doctor tells Robert that Charles Berliner multiple fractures to his hands a kneecap, was poked in the ribs and the blow to his frontal lobe probably was what finally did him in. 

Cut to Robert questioning Mrs. Berliner. When he first told her he was dead, she replied she knew it, and Robert wants to know why? 

She replies by recounting a dream she had where she was in a garden and Charles came out from under an arbor and his face was bloody. Then he got blurry and said goodbye Margo. Robert confirms that he died on Friday night the same night as her dream.

Robert also learns from Margot that Charles went to a bar called Bar Des Artistes. Margo offers Robert a drink. 

She talks more about her and Charles, relating that he was getting fed up with the concerts, etc., etc. Margo tells Robert that Charles was a great lover but he was getting bored with everything. It was then that he hooked up with a slut called Barbara. We also meet Charles' step son Éric who is introduced by  sudden loud music breaking into their conversation. 

Margo goes running off to turn it off and  Éric follows her back out

Éric, who didn't respect Charles also wisecracks that, now that he's dead we'll always know where to find him (in the cemetery).

Éric also goes off on his mother announcing to Robert that he was a love child, then he tries to goad Mago by asking her to tell Robert about her fling.

Robert is taking mental notes on all of this. He interrupts Éric asking him when he saw his stepfather last,  Éric basically tells him to fuck off and storms back to his room. When Robert turns his attention back to Margot she is sleeping in her chair. Robert finishes the cognac she poured him, and splits.

Robert next goes to Charles Berliner's studio apartment. He walks down a cobblestone alley to a door marked concierge. He knocks and when the concierge answers through the door asks which apartment is Charles Berliner.

The concierge yells through the door, no numbers, it the one at the top of a stairs further down the alley.

Robert unlocks the door with Charles' keys and looks around his flat. 

There's a concert grand piano in one room, a bedroom, and in a kitchen Robert spies another pair of spats hanging to dry on a clothesline. In the bedroom he tries on one of Charles' hats. On a table Robert finds a cassette tape recorder and a pile of cassettes. 

Robert pops one in and we hear Charles talking about fucking Barbara through her panties. Robert pops it out and puts in another. It's another sex talk tape. The third tape is different and we hear Charles relate that Mark beat him up in the john at the Bar of Artistes. He also adds that he's afraid that Mark is going to kill him one day. 

So far Robert is acquiring a list of suspects. While Robert is listening to the tape, Barbara walks into the apartment and walks up to Robert "Bonjour."

Robert introduces himself, then asks who she is? "Barbara," she replies "Barbara Chalon." Robert inquires why is she here? She came for his things. She starts to grab for the tape cassettes but Robert stops her announcing that the police are interested now.

He asks if she new Charles well knowing full well what he heard on the tape. 

Barbara: Yes very well.

Robert: He was murdered on Friday night.

Barbara: I know it [turns away from Robert and walks towards the stairway]. 

Robert [wisecracking]: Don't tell me you dreamed it?

Barbara [still walking towards the stair]: No 

Robert: So how do you know?

"Because I murdered him"

Barbara [stopping and whirling around and smiling]: Because I murdered him.

Robert of course, doesn't know for sure, but he thinks she's either bullshitting him, or really fucking nuts. 

Cut to the blue Neon Pub Royal and pan down. 

Then a quick cut to a  wood paneled interior. We watch Robert walk in and ask for a glass of water. The bar owner tells him they are closed.

Here we get a humorous sequence where the bartender comes over getting more boisterous about being closed until Robert whips out a police inspector I.D. The bartender pipes down, and Robert grabs a glass of water for his daily dose of hypertension drops. 

Robert: A guy in gray spats sound familiar. 

Bartender: You think I spend all these nights looking at the customer's feet?

Robert: Charles Berliner rings a bell?

Bartender: Charlie, I haven't seen him for at least two days.

Robert: I saw him.

Bartender: Where?

Robert: In the morgue.

Bartender: That explains it.

Robert: No, it doesn't explain everything. It doesn't explain that a certain Mark beat him up. 

Bartender: Here? This place?

Robert: Seems like it. [Takes a sip of the water and spits it out across the bar] This water is disgusting. Warm! [He next throws the glass behind the bar]

Bartender: Funny I didn't figure you out. I though I knew all the cops tricks. They come here looking for a girl or a payoff. But to come in here to take their drops is something new. 

Robert picks up a dish of olives, and brings it over to where he left the bartender.

Robert: So you don't know this Mark? 

Bartender: No [Robert spits an olive pit at the bartender's face]

Robert: And Barbara? [Robert spits another olive pit at the bartender's face] You know Barbara Chalon? 

Bartender: Nope.

Robert: And if you thinl real hard? 

Bartender: If I think real hard I'd say maybe it was the girl who came in with Charlie.

Robert: Did she ever come in with anyone else?

Bartender: You mean this big blonde burley guy? Maybe that's him.

Robert continues asking if any one else besides Mark came in with Barbara, and after a while the bartender volunteers more info on Mark and how he pestered the customers. 

Finally Robert explains to the bartender about how a cops mind works before we cut to a nocturnal cityscape.

The cityscape is the view from Roberts apartment. He's listening to more of Charlie's cassettes. He makes a call to Mrs. Berliner and asks a question about a section he heard on the tape. Then we cut to a nightclub where we see Robert dancing while he's watching Barbara dance a little way to the side. 

Robert moves closer and alongside Barbara. 

Robert: You told me you murdered him, but do you have proof?

Barbara: Unfortunately No. 

Robert: You do it on purpose?

Barbara turns from the dance floor and returns to her seat. Robert follows and sits at her table.

Robert: I can tell you what would be the perfect scenario for me. I'll bust you.

Barbara: Like that? Right now? Can we have a drink first?

Robert: I say I'm taking you in. You'll go to trial and you'll get twenty years. Like that clean and proper. [laughs to himself] But if I have to release you in the morning, I'd look like a fool. But I'd rather talk about Mark. I'd prefer Mark to be the murderer. Wouldn't you? 

Barbara: Yes, maybe. Who's he? 

Robert: A Moron. On cassette 2 side A, Charles Berliner says, "Yesterday at the Pub Royal, Merk beat me up in the crapper and then left with her. Everyone in the bar was overjoyed. This moron will kill me someday." 

Barbara: I know a lot of morons, but none of them is called Mark. [here a waiter lights Barbara's smoke in a pause] How did you find me?

Robert: Cassette 5, side B. She dances every night at the pink elephant... And then in the morning, she leaves with some guy. 

Barbara, pauses, acting like she is insulted, and then gathers her coat. getting up to leave. but Robert reaches out.

Robert: You aren't going to do the same with me?

Barbara: We aren't there yet... Bobby.

Robert [chuckles]: Bobby.

Barbara pauses looks back over her shoulder at Robert.

Barbara: See You later.

We follow Barbara as she walks out of The Pink Elephant and just outside the door meets the blonde haired Mark. They walk out into the street and hop into a red 1983 Alfa Romeo GTV, and drive off.

Cut to the cassette player.  

Robert is listening to another of Charles' tapes. We can hear him picking out a tune on the piano as he tells us that he hasn't gone out for a week, I drink beer, I play the piano... I'm bored. He finishes by saying that he wants to die with his eyes open. Will they give me the occasion. The tape ends and Robert inserts the next one. In it Charlie relates that he thinks there's something sinister a venomous complicity between this moron and this nympho.  He goes on to say if he finds out what it is, it would be a reason to kill me. 

We get a few more sequences where Robert is putting himself in Charles' shoes, looking at photos,  listening to his piano records and even wearing his spats at one point while laying on Charles' bed.  

Robert while searching through a kitchen cupboard he finds in a tin, inside is a 7.65mm Walther PP automatic. 

Also we watch in a cut to an entirely separate scene a young woman walking to a phone booth and making a call.

. 

It's to Margo at her house. The young woman in the phone booth speaks and we overhear Margo respond that she knows someone to send to her for help.

Here Robert gets off on a tangent when after getting Margo's call for help. He goes to meet the young woman. Their rendezvous is at the phone booth. 

The young woman explains to Robert that Eric was extorting money from Charles and when Charles refused to give him any more Eric decided to make up his losses by pushing / selling some junk, and then stiffing the dealers. He's hiding up in her apartment. 

Eric, eventually, after being initially pissed at his girlfriend bringing a flic to him, spills the beans on who the dealers are.

Robert goes to harass the dealers. He tells them how he can connect the dots to them. Here we get another light amusement when the head dealer tell the other one to go get their press book. Robert chuckles. 

The head dealer reads a newspaper article about their assault on a female druggist on the other side of the city. Robert tells them to lay off Eric and he'll forget about the assault.

This tangent ends and we are back with Robert at Charles' studio listening to another of his tapes. Charles is talking about the best years of his life with Margo. 

Then he tells us that this morning a little bird fell diagonally by his window. The bird was the colors of spring. Green and yellow. Suddenly we hear Barbara's voice.

Barbara: Why are you telling me all this?

Charlie: So you'd listen... and stay here a bit longer.

A low angle shot of a door opening. A woman's tan heels walks into Charles apartment, and continues across an oriental carpet, so we assume she is heading towards Robert and the cassette player. 

Charles continues....

Charlie: Let me try to fuck you. Remember in the beginning you said I was the best fuck you've ever had?

Barbara: Ok Charlie lets try it.

Charlie: Why not? It doesn't have to be successful. You do it on purpose you want to drive me crazy

Barbara: I told you lets try it Charlie, I'm being nice. 

At this point Barbara has made it to the room and says the words aloud along with the tape startling Robert.

Barbara: You don't seem to be happy yo see me. Just a thought. 

Robert: I was waiting for you at The Pink Elephant for a very long time.

Barbara: You've wanted that from the beginning.

Robert: What?

Barbara: To screw me.

Robert: Are you crazy or what?

Barbara: Why not? You've already tried on his vest. His shoes. His cigarettes. His bed. Why not try me?

Robert: What are you getting at? Stop this circus for a bit.

Barbara: I want to make love to you. I came to tell you. That's all.

Robert: To make love to me just like that? For no reason?

Barbara: The idea that you'd make me cum, you don't think that's a good reason?

Robert: Alright, lets do it right now, on the table. [He waves his hand over a book cluttered table] Clear away!

It starts to go Noirsville when while Robert is babbling on sarcastically about how he cant understand her attraction, women are supposed to be attracted to "big blonde guts from the land of the fiords".... Barbara is clearing off the table.... "Women attack me every night. There's nothing new to it...." 

Noirsville

This is a good cat and mouse procedural that keeps thing interesting to the end. All the prformances are spot on. It will be interesting to see if director Jacques Deray and Cinematographer Jean Penzer corroborated an more Noir. 8/10

The original novel was based in London...

Novel cover