Works by
Sébastien Japrisot
(Aka Jean-Baptiste Rossi)
(Screenwriter, Writer)
[July 4, 1931 – March 4, 2003)

Fiction

• A Very Long Engagement / Un long dimanche de fiançailles (1991), Linda Coverdale, translator
  Movie (2004), Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director, with Audrey Tautou and Gaspard Ulliel  DVD VHS


Set during and after the First World War, A Very Long Engagement tells the story of a young woman's search for her fiancé, whom she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as "killed in the line of duty." Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops. A Very Long Engagement is a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.

• Women in Evidence \ The Passion Of Women \ La Passion des femmes (1986), Ros Schwartz, translator
  When a young man is shot dead on a beach, suspicion is cast on several women. Marie-Martine, the glacial lawyer who records their evidence, seems also to be involved - as are a gamekeeper, a blacksmith, and the military police.

• One Deadly Summer / L'Été meurtrier (1978, Alan Sheridan, translator
  Movie (2004), Jean Becker, director with Isabelle Adjani and Alain Souchon  DVD  VHS


Part love story, part mystery, and part parable on the nature of evil and the porous fabric separating the victim from the victimizer, One Deadly Summer tells the compelling story of a cunning young woman's plan to avenge a crime committed against her family.

• Awakening / Les Mal Partis (1951)

• Visages de l'amour et de la haine (1950)

Crime Fiction

• The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun / La Dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil (1966), Helen Weaver, translator
  Dany Longo is blonde, beautiful, disturbed, passionate--and nearsighted. As she speeds through the south of France in a purloined Thunderbird on an errand for her employer and his wife, no one, including Dany herself, knows where she is headed--or why she is going there.

• Trap for Cinderella / Piège pour Cendrillon (1963), Helen Weaver, translator
  A beach house at a French resort is gutted by fire. Trapped inside are two women - one rich and the other poor. Only one of them survives, burnt beyond recognition and in a state of total amnesia. Who is she, the heiress or her penniless friend? A killer, or an intended victim?

• The 10:30 from Marseille / The Sleeping-Car Murders / Compartiment tueurs (1962), Francis Price, translator

Screenplays

• Rider on the Rain \ Le Passager de la pluie (1992), Linda Coverdale, translator 
  Movie: René Clément, director with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland  DVD  VHS
  The story of the psychological duel between an American investigator and Mellie, following the murder of a stranger who had also raped her.

• La Course du lièvre à travers les champs (1972).
  Movie: René Clément, director with Emmanuelle Béart

• Goodbye, Friend / Adieu l'ami (1968), Patricia Allen Dreyfus, translator
  Movie: Jean Vautrin, director  with Alain Delon and Charles Bronson  DVD  VHS

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Other

• Nine Stories / Nouvelles (1961), Jean-Louis Curtis (aka Louis Laffitte), ed.(1961)

See also:

• Sebastien Japrisot: The Art of Crime (2009) by Martin Hurcombe and Simon Kemp
  Influential author of highly unconventional crime fiction, screenwriter, and occasional film director, Sébastien Japrisot was one of those rare contemporary writers in France able to establish an international reputation for himself. Although Japrisot's novels in particular continue to be read and studied across the world, this volume is the first ever academic study of Japrisot's work in the fields of both literature and cinema. Through a combination of thematic and text-specific studies, this volume takes in, and examines the legacy of, Japrisot's work from his youthful writings under his real name, Jean-Baptiste Rossi, to his crime fiction and screen writings of the 1960s and 1970s, concluding with his final novel Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement). It is both an essential introduction to Japrisot and a valuable academic assessment of his work's importance in the field of contemporary French literature and film.