Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo
More Info: IMDB
Plot: Burglar Maurice Faugel has just finished his sentence. He murders Gilbert Vanovre, a receiver, and steals the loot of a break-in. He is also preparing a house-breaking, and his friend Silien brings him the needed equipment. But Silien is a police informer ...
My Rating: 9/10
Would I watch it again? Does a French whore like wine?
I'll give the French this much: they my be fighting for last place in countries that think soap is a good idea but they damn well knew how to make crime movies back in the 1960s! When it comes to crime pictures of the 60s, Jean-Pierre Melville was king. That's all he did. From '56 to'72 he did ten films, all but two are crime stories. So far I've seen four and they're all excellent. At some point I'm going to revisit them and get to the ones I haven't seen yet.
Melville said once that this is a movie where "all characters are two-faced, all characters are false." The cinematography is simply stunning. The composition of each shot is magnificent. The beautiful B&W photography, the shadows, the darkness, the shifting light are all characters in their own right. Criterion put out a smashing DVD of this amazing work of art. Find it.
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