Popular Culture
French authors René-Louis Maurice and Jean-Claude Simoën wrote the book Cinq Milliards au bout de l'égout (1977) about Spaggiari's bank heist in Nice. Their work was translated in 1978 by the British author Ken Follett as The Heist of the Century (also published as The Gentleman of 16 July and Under the Streets of Nice). To the outrage of Ken Follett some publishers brought it out as a new Ken Follett book, while it was in fact little more than a rushed through translation.
Three movies were produced which were also based on the Nice bank robbery:
- Les égouts du paradis, a French movie directed by José Giovanni (1979).
- The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (also known Dirty Money and Sewers of Gold), a British movie directed by Francis Megahy (1979).
- Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence, a French movie directed by Jean-Paul Rouve (2008)
The Canadian television series Masterminds created an episode reenacting the story of the robbery. A Czech movie Prachy dělaj člověka contains a reference to the heist, suggesting that one of the characters participated in it.
Read more about this topic: Albert Spaggiari
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:
“Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)