Saturday, April 04, 2020

Le Doulos (1962)

A professional thief organizes a robbery for which he is forced by circumstances to rely on the help of a so-called friend who gives him reason for suspicion.

A film noir by the book, made by the "father" of  French gangster films, namely Jean-Pierre Melville. The noir nuance is easy to observe, with the dubious characters that unravel on the screen and the beautiful "dolls" that know how to sound profound without saying much, but the story itself is complicated only for the sake of complication and is accompanied by an ending in which a character explains the twists like for primary school children. The characters who have any stains are punished and it feels like the intention was for the viewer to feel compassion for some of them, but that was done without providing a strong enough positive substrate that could help generate such compassion.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Melville
With: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Piccoli, Serge Reggiani, Jean Desailly

Rating: 7/10

No comments:

Post a Comment