Symphony for a Massacre

Five criminals pool their money to buy a large shipment of drugs, expecting to sell it on and split the proceeds. One of them, Jabeke, decides he wants the whole sum for himself and sets about turning his partners against one another. Suspicion spreads through the group, the deal comes under threat, and the partners who were meant to be working together end up in open conflict.

Symphony for a Massacre is a French and Italian crime drama directed by Jacques Deray, released in 1963. It was the first film in the directing career listed here, ahead of later titles such as The Swimming Pool, Borsalino and Flic Story. Deray wrote the screenplay with José Giovanni and Claude Sautet, and Giovanni also appears in the cast as Moreau. The film stars Jean Rochefort as Jabeke, alongside Michel Auclair, Claude Dauphin, Charles Vanel and Michèle Mercier.

The film runs 115 minutes. It is rated 7.2 out of 10 on IMDb from over eight hundred votes, and 6.7 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes, so its reputation rests on a fairly modest but consistent body of viewer support rather than on wide popular attention.