chaswe-28402
The plots of some of Raymond Chandler's stories were not even understood by their author. From the reviews on this site it is clear I am not alone in having problems with the plot of this film. The beginning was fairly clear, although it was difficult to know why the gloomy released prisoner, Maurice Faugel, suddenly shot the kind and friendly old fence, Gilbert. The ending was fairly clear: it was obvious that mistakes were being made by the trigger-happy threesome, Faugel, Silien and a jailbird called Kern. I understood hardly anything of the stuff in between. It kept me guessing. If I watch the film some few times again, with the help of Wikipedia's elucidation, perhaps I will be able to figure it out.Faugel reminded me slightly of Mr Bean. Belmondo, the only familiar face, who plays the multiple treble-crosser, Silien, seemed very different from the character in "Breathless", although that film was made only two years earlier. He looked slimmer, more restrained and subdued, and younger, although he had seemed quite young in "Breathless".It's all very intriguing and bewildering. The girls are extremely badly treated, beaten up and even murdered by the men. It is baffling and difficult to know why, but this kind of relationship between the sexes is quite typical of noir films. Somebody once told me it's because relationships during the war, WWII, had been characterized by unease, treachery and faithlessness.On its release the film was given a mindlessly critical review in the New York Times. I was entertained.
Michael Neumann
Trust no one in this convoluted French New Wave thriller, which (on its surface) seems to concern an ex-con who suspects a former partner of duplicity. Every character in the film is looking to double-cross someone, but in the end only the audience is successfully hoodwinked, fooled into attempting to unravel a confusing tangle of unexplained and seemingly unmotivated events, before the jigsaw scenario is cleverly assembled in retrospect. It takes a certain mental alacrity to keep pace with who is plotting what to whom (and why), but the wide-awake will be rewarded with a satisfying solution, although perhaps the final scenes take advantage of one irony too many. Without its complex narrative structure the film would be a more or less straightforward plagiarism of American B-movie crime drama conventions, proving yet again how a skillful imitation can make even the most familiar material fresh again.
Seamus2829
The French may or may not have invented film noir, but they certainly refined it. This film is no exception. For anyone who enjoys hard boiled crime fare, this film will be another feather in your cap. The plot concerns a petty thief (Jean Paul Belmondo)who did a hitch in prison for theft, gets involved in another caper right straight away. Jean Pierre Melville (who directed such noir fare as Army Of Shadows) shows a fine hand for dealing with the dregs of society in a film that is handsomely shot in atmospheric black & white. The print I had the pleasure to see is a brand new 35mm print that is a treat to behold on a cinema screen,proper. Belmondo,as well as the principal male cast members play the swine to perfection.
MartinHafer
This film is a 1960s version of an American Film Noir flick. However, as it was made a little later and due to French sensibilities, there were some differences. First, the film was even more brutal, as one woman got beaten very convincingly and cruelly on film and another guy had a bloody bullet pulled from his shoulder. I didn't really mind these details too much, as the characters WERE bad people and you could easily see them behaving that way. Also, because this was created in the midst of the French New Wave, the camera work was a little fuzzier and cheaper than a polished Hollywood film. This isn't' necessarily worse--just different in style--sort of like some of Sam Fuller's films. The only real problems I had with the film is that the plot was a little confusing (probably less so if you are French) and there are many earlier, American Film Noir pictures that are simply better. This isn't to say this is a bad film--it's pretty good. It's just that I didn't feel it offered any sort of improvement over earlier works such as The Killers, DOA, Kiss of Death or any number of other Film Noir flicks.
AD
