Philippe Labro is an icon in France: One of the country’s most famous writers and journalists he’s been at the forefront of France’s cultural life since the 60s: he’s rubbed soulders with Jean Luc Godard (he plays himself as a Europe 1 journalist giving a lift to Anna Karina in Godard’s 1966 film “Made In USA”), Jean Pierre Melville (his mentor who died of a heart attack in his arms in 1973) and Serge Gainsbourg with whom he wrote a whole album for Jane Birkin in 1975 – the album “Lolita Go Home”.
In this maelstrom of activity, Labro took to time to direct a few cult movies including his masterpiece “L’Heritier” from 1973. Starting in 1969 with the new-wave influenced “Tout Peut Arriver” produced by Mag Bodard (who’d launched Jacques Demy’s career), he switched to genre film two years later with producer Jacques-Eric Strauss to direct the crime film “Sans Mobile Apparent” adapted from an Ed McBain novel, “Ten Plus One.”
Strauss who had hit the jackpot in 1969 producing The Sicilian Clan starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, was aquainted to Ennio Morricone who had composed the soundtrack for the film. He suggested the idea to Philippe Labro and the young director jumped on the opportunity to work with the Maestro. The collaboration was swiftly sealed and Morricone then composed one of his most beautiful scores featuring all of his trademark ingredients: a catchy theme, Alessandro Alessandroni’s unmistakable whistle, lush and dissonant orchestral arrangements plus an enormous groove which will please DJs and diggers alike.
The film featuring Jean Louis Trintignant and Dominique Sanda (fresh from Bertolucci’s The Conformist) was shot by Labro under the guidance of Jean-Pierre Melville who would give useful pieces of advice to Labro every night over the phone. A slick and cool thriller set in sunny Nice, the film pays hommage to American genre films in a similar way Dario Argento’s gialli were, around the same time.
The film has slowly become a cult classic in France with film lovers and, according to Philippe Labro, aged well certainly in great part thanks to the formidable music composed by Morricone giving the film its unique pace. Although the composer was at his peak at the time (Once Upon A Time In The West had only been composed three years earlier) the soundtrack only came out as a single in France at the time. Wewantsounds is happy to release Sans Mobile Apparent on vinyl in its full glory, making this edition the first widely available vinyl edition – with new artwork by Eric Adrian Lee and remastered audio – for the pleasure of all Morricone lovers.
