Jean-Patrick Manchette
Writer · Died June 3, 1995, aged 52 · Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Jean-Patrick Manchette (19 December 1942, Marseille – 3 June 1995, Paris) was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the seventies and early eighties, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of that period. His stories are violent explorations of the human condition and French society. Manchette was politically to the left and his writing reflects this through his analysis of social positions and culture. Eight of his eleven novels have been translated into English. Two were published by San Francisco publisher City Lights Books—3 To Kill (from the French Le petit bleu de la côte ouest) and The Prone Gunman (from the French La Position du tireur couché). Five other novels, Fatale, The Mad and the Bad (from the French O dingos, O chateaux!), Ivory Pearl (from the French La Princesse du Sang), Nada, and No Room at the Morgue were released by New York Review Books Classics in 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. In 2009, Fantagraphics Books released an English-language version of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's adaptation of Le petit bleu de la côte ouest, under the new English title West Coast Blues. Fantagraphics released a second Tardi adaptation, of "La Position du tireur couché" (under the title "Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot" ) in 2011, and a third one, of "Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!" (under the title "Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell") in 2015. Manchette was a fan of comics, and his praised translation of Alan Moore's Watchmen into French remains in print. Born December 19, 1942, in Marseille, where the war had temporarily led his parents, Jean-Patrick Manchette spent most of his early years in Malakoff, in Paris's southern suburbs. Growing up in a relatively modest family (his father started out as a factory worker, later to become an electronics sales executive), he was an excellent pupil and from an early age showed keen interest in writing. During his childhood and adolescence, he wrote hundreds of pages of pastiches of war memoirs and science fiction novels, gradually turning to attempts at "serious" fiction. A compulsive reader, passionate lover of American film and jazz (he played the tenor and alto saxophone), he also developed a lifelong interest in chess and other strategy games. While his parents envisioned a teaching career for him, to their great dismay he dropped out of the ENS without graduating, and decided to try and earn a living writing. He went to England to teach French for one semester in a college for the blind at Worcester, then returned to France. A left-wing activist during the War of Algeria in the early 1960s, he was at that time very much influenced by the writings of the Situationist International. ... Source: Article "Jean-Patrick Manchette" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Read moreShow less
Biography from TMDB.
- December 19, 1942
- June 3, 1995 (aged 52)
- Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
- Writer
- 9 on MovieCove · 19 credits in all
What are Jean-Patrick Manchette's films like?
Across their 8 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Power.
Genres
Their MovieCove films by primary genre. The badge is the typical Midcredits score of the genre's films, the median percentile; an up arrow marks a genre at or above their average across these genres.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 1 · Wry 3 · Earnest 4
A split, not a type: Light 2 · Serious 1 · Dark 5
Grounded 3 · Stylized 4 · Heightened 1
Gentle 0 · Charged 3 · Intense 5
Steady 0 · Shifting 5 · Whiplash 3
Straight-faced 5 · Some laughs 3 · Funny 0
Slow burn 1 · Even-paced 5 · Relentless 2
Casual 2 · Engaged 5 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 3 · Affecting 3 · Heavy 2
Resolved 5 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Happy3
- Bittersweet2
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Jean-Patrick Manchette's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 4 of their 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (2).
Subscription and free streaming for Jean-Patrick Manchette's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
19 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page; 1 appearance as themselves is hidden until asked for.
Let the Corpses Tan(2017)
Midcredits score: 57th percentile of all films
The Gunman(2015)
Midcredits score: 27th percentile of all films
Polar (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1984)
La crime(1983)
Midcredits score: 23rd percentile of all films
Legitimate Violence (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1982)
Le choc(1982)
Midcredits score: 35th percentile of all films
The Time Masters(1982)
Midcredits score: 90th percentile of all films
To Kill a Cop(1981)
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all films
Three Men to Kill(1980)
Midcredits score: 50th percentile of all films
The Probability Factor (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1976)
Mad Enough to Kill (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1975)
Act of Aggression(1975)
Midcredits score: 23rd percentile of all films
Nada(1974)
Midcredits score: 62nd percentile of all films
Ras le bol (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1973)
Bartleby (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1970)
Le Socrate (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1968)
The Slave (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Love + Fear = Torment (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Fatale (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 19 titles, 18 of them dated from 1967 to 2017.
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Jean-Patrick Manchette's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 50th percentile, the median of all 9; across their 8 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 58th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up1
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th2
Shape of the crowd
None of their 9 titles divides audiences: 4 are Crowd Pleasers.
- Crowd Pleaser4
- Broadly Agreed2
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the dialogue 50/100 and the plot and story 43/100 in their films, across 8 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a writer.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Jean-Patrick Manchette work with?
People who share at least 2 of Jean-Patrick Manchette's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Alain Delon shares the most, 3.
Directors
- Alain DelonShared titles: Le choc (1982), To Kill a Cop (1981), Three Men to Kill (1980)See all 3 shared titles with Alain Delon
Writers
- Christopher FrankShared titles: To Kill a Cop (1981), Three Men to Kill (1980)See all 2 shared titles with Christopher Frank
Actors
- François PerrotShared titles: Le choc (1982), Three Men to Kill (1980), Nada (1974)See all 3 shared titles with François Perrot
- Claude BrasseurShared titles: La crime (1983), Act of Aggression (1975)See all 2 shared titles with Claude Brasseur
- Jean-Louis TrintignantShared titles: La crime (1983), Act of Aggression (1975)See all 2 shared titles with Jean-Louis Trintignant
- Catherine DeneuveShared titles: Le choc (1982), Act of Aggression (1975)See all 2 shared titles with Catherine Deneuve
Cinematographers and editors
- Pierre-William GlennShared titles: La crime (1983), Le choc (1982)See all 2 shared titles with Pierre-William Glenn
- Thierry DeroclesShared titles: La crime (1983), Le choc (1982)See all 2 shared titles with Thierry Derocles
- Jean TournierShared titles: To Kill a Cop (1981), Three Men to Kill (1980)See all 2 shared titles with Jean Tournier
Producers
- Alain TerzianShared titles: Le choc (1982), Three Men to Kill (1980)See all 2 shared titles with Alain Terzian
