Bob le flambeur (1955)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Guy Decomble, André Garet
Synopsis:
A famous Pigalle gambler and sometime crook, enormously respected by colleagues and police alike, gets down on his luck and, after years of keeping his nose clean, plans a daring casino robbery. He is betrayed by his tinhorn protégé, a tart he takes under his wing and the inside man on the job.
Review:
Highly influenced by American noirs and capers like The Asphalt Jungle, and spared the contumely of the New Wave critics for that reason, as well as the fact that it shared their interest in telling a story as visually as possible with snappy dialogue and a whiff of authenticity. This was Melville's first essay in a genre he made his own and it betrays his obsession with gabardines, men being men, women being floozies, etc. The cut-to-measure music cues get a bit wearing after a while, but the atmosphere is great, the leads and Citroen sports cars are well up to Hollywood standards, and the final sequence in which the much delayed caper is pre-empted by a prolonged gambling montage and an inopportune arrival of the cops, is so...French.
Country: FR
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Guy Decomble, André Garet
Synopsis:
A famous Pigalle gambler and sometime crook, enormously respected by colleagues and police alike, gets down on his luck and, after years of keeping his nose clean, plans a daring casino robbery. He is betrayed by his tinhorn protégé, a tart he takes under his wing and the inside man on the job.
Review:
Highly influenced by American noirs and capers like The Asphalt Jungle, and spared the contumely of the New Wave critics for that reason, as well as the fact that it shared their interest in telling a story as visually as possible with snappy dialogue and a whiff of authenticity. This was Melville's first essay in a genre he made his own and it betrays his obsession with gabardines, men being men, women being floozies, etc. The cut-to-measure music cues get a bit wearing after a while, but the atmosphere is great, the leads and Citroen sports cars are well up to Hollywood standards, and the final sequence in which the much delayed caper is pre-empted by a prolonged gambling montage and an inopportune arrival of the cops, is so...French.
Country: FR
Technical: bw 98m
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Guy Decomble, André Garet
Synopsis:
A famous Pigalle gambler and sometime crook, enormously respected by colleagues and police alike, gets down on his luck and, after years of keeping his nose clean, plans a daring casino robbery. He is betrayed by his tinhorn protégé, a tart he takes under his wing and the inside man on the job.
Review:
Highly influenced by American noirs and capers like The Asphalt Jungle, and spared the contumely of the New Wave critics for that reason, as well as the fact that it shared their interest in telling a story as visually as possible with snappy dialogue and a whiff of authenticity. This was Melville's first essay in a genre he made his own and it betrays his obsession with gabardines, men being men, women being floozies, etc. The cut-to-measure music cues get a bit wearing after a while, but the atmosphere is great, the leads and Citroen sports cars are well up to Hollywood standards, and the final sequence in which the much delayed caper is pre-empted by a prolonged gambling montage and an inopportune arrival of the cops, is so...French.