Jean-Pierre Melville

  • Bob le flambeur [Bob the Gambler] (1956)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Criterion Streaming, September 2021) One of the most amusing side-stories in global cinema history is how film noir led to the French New Wave, spawning off the heist movie genre along the way. While there are other movies (Rififi, À bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou) to illustrate that transition, writer-director Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le flambeur remains one of the central texts of that shift, and it remains an interesting watch today because it plays with a newly-familiar formula. Roger Duchesne stars as the titular Bob, an ex-convict who has since “reformed” into becoming an inveterate gambler. Recently down-on-his luck, he sets the plot in motion when he’s told that the local casino has vast quantities of cash in its safe. Putting together a crew, he’s unaware that his plan won’t stay secret. I was not particularly looking forward to Bob le flambeur — I approached it as list-checking viewing, since I tend to be hit-and-miss on the French Nouvelle Vague, and was decidedly unimpressed by its 2002 remake The Good Thief. But the original is better. On one level, it’s a familiar heist film showing how the crew is assembled, cases the work to be done, finds ways to counteract the defences and tries to stay one step ahead of the police. On another level, it’s a film that hints toward the interiority of the French Nouvelle Vague — Duchesne is impassible as the lead (prefiguring Le Samourai), lending both coolness and distance to the character. But the most memorable aspect of the film remains the ironic ending, as Bob’s flaws end up making him a winner in a completely unlikely (but unbelievably lucky) way. The film jumps genres at that point, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing — probably because, as the formula was borrowed and perfected, we got to see the “conventional” ending so many times that this variation still feels fresh and amusing.

  • Léon Morin, prêtre (1961)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2021) At first glance, I wasn’t expecting much from Léon Morin, prêtre: Why should I go back to Vichy-era rural France for a priest’s character study? But as it turns out, the film is slightly better than that, and not all that much about religion. It ebbs and flows, takes a while to get to the point and doesn’t end on a particularly satisfactory note (although it’s unclear if it ever could), but it gradually imposes its style. Much of the film’s plot ends up centred on the relationship that the priest develops with a young widowed mother, as they converse about theology, philosophy and other intellectual topics. The suspense comes when she clearly develops feelings for him, and finds her advance rebuffed by the very pure priest. Much of the credit of the film’s success goes to Jean-Paul Belmondo and Emmanuelle Riva in the lead roles — both of them attractive and compelling even in the midst of abstract conversations. The oppressive atmosphere of Nazi-occupied France adds some interesting subplots, and Jean-Pierre Melville’s direction shows his familiarity with the era. There’s an unpredictability to the details of the film, and while Léon Morin, prêtre definitely plays with seduction, the ending doesn’t necessarily provide cheap culmination. It all adds up to a substantially more interesting film than I expected, and one that fits nicely within Melville’s filmography.

  • Le cercle rouge [The Red Circle] (1970)

    Le cercle rouge [The Red Circle] (1970)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (YouTube Streaming, July 2020) Oops. Oh, I can recognize that Le Cercle Rouge is a good movie. Directed with clinical precision by Jean-Pierre Melville, it’s about a robbery put together by a group of men, one of them played with typical cool by Alain Delon. It’s about a criminal on the run, pursued by a dogged police officer. It’s about the mixture of existential musings and criminal genre plotting so typical of Melville. It’s about 1970 Paris, all leading to a very long robbery sequence executed without dialogue or music. The ending is suitably punishing for the criminals. But here’s the unfortunate thing: I have been seeing a lot of black-and-white heist movies lately, many of them with groups of criminals coming together for an extended robbery sequence shot without music or dialogue, and not only are they blurring together, they’re making it harder to keep my interest while watching Le cercle rouge. Haven’t I seen this before? Don’t I have a really good idea of what’s going to happen? Unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable given that other of those other films was the very similar Rififi, which obviously influenced this one. I’ll give Le cercle rouge a cautious recommendation (albeit tempered by my impatience with Melville’s usual languid pacing and existential excesses), and give it a while before I try watching it again.

  • Le samouraï [The Samurai] (1967)

    Le samouraï [The Samurai] (1967)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2019) Some films age more poorly than others because they have been, in a sense, too successful: Whatever set them apart has been so often copied, referenced, improved or badly remade that they are now unremarkable. I feel a lot like this about Le Samouraï, which follows a hired killer with a Spartan lifestyle. Executed with stylish detachment, Le Samouraï offers a blend between making its protagonist as cool as possible (almost effortless when he’s played by Alain Delon) and presenting a deconstruction of that same cool-killer archetype by highlighting how mentally unwell he is. There’s not a whole lot of action to the film, most of the running time being dedicated to navigating a difficult situation between organized crime, the police and the victims. Many of the plot twists, all the way to the conclusion, can be anticipated well in advance: after all, there have been many similar movies in the decades since then, especially in the neo-noir 1990s. Some of my favourite (The Killer) and not-so-favourite (Ghost Dog) films of the period are clearly derived from Le samouraï, the point being that I’ve watched a lot of them and have developed an immune response to attempts at portraying stone-cold killers as cool guys. This being said, I can still recognize a clear artistic intention behind writer-director Jean-Pierre Melville’s intention in presenting the film, even though many will focus on the “cool assassin” tropes rather than the “barely functioning human” ones. Alain Delon, to repeat the obvious, is cooler-than-cool, while Cathy Rosier has a striking presence as a singer and intended victim. Le Samouraï now probably feels far more conceptually basic than it must have been at the time, but it does still score points on where it matters most … the execution.

  • L’armée des ombres [Army of Shadows] (1969)

    L’armée des ombres [Army of Shadows] (1969)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, October 2018) The popular depiction of the WW2 French Resistance is usually heroic, portraying them as virtuous stalwart fighters against the occupying Nazi regime. But the reality wasn’t so rosy nor clear-cut, and writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville knew better than most, having witnessed it firsthand. So when he tackled the topic in L’armée des ombres, he did so with a complete lack of romanticism. The French Resistance here is made of anti-heroes, cruel and doomed at the same time. It’s a rough business, and death is seldom clean. Their activities are sordid, set against ugly backdrops and the constant threats of betrayal from fellow Frenchmen. There are a few heroics, but they almost come across as accidents with terrible consequences. A sombre and anti-glamorous cinematography further reinforces the intended realism of the film. L’armée des ombres is certainly not a pleasant viewing experience, but it does offer a different view of the Resistance, something that usually remains an unexamined plot device in other, lesser movies.