1963 - MAGNET OF DOOM aka L'ane des ferchaux

Jean Paul Belmondo is a washed up boxer who manages to get himself hired as a secretary/bodyguard to a businessman.  Charles Vanel plays the businessman on the run from the police in France as they investigate his shady background.  Eventually Belmondo and Vanel end up in the United States with a suitcase full of money where they are followed by the FBI.

 The director is Jean-Pierre Melville an expert on these types of crime films.  Here he seems to come up a little flat in his film making for some reason.  The Belmondo and Vanel really have to work hard to maintain any interest in the story.  The film has some nice color photography of the United States in the early 60's courtesy of Henri Decaë.  Melville is fairly good at creating a believable situation of 2 Frenchman  who are a couple of fish out of water hiding from the authorities in the southern part of the United States, particularly New Orleans.

However I would say this is one Melville's lesser films and certainly not up there with his later films such as Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge.  The weakness of the film is due to the weakness in the screenplay which can't seem to make their situation very compelling.

 

Written by Jean-Pierre Melville, the running time is 102 minutes.

1962 - LE DOULOS, is another great Melville crime film

Another very good thriller from Jean Pierre Melville, a master in this genre. 

All the Melville stuff is here, a cool star, the heavy influence of American film noir, and some tight action scenes.  This time Melville has written a very tricky plot involving an informant played by very cool French star Jean-Paul Belmondo and thief Serge Reggiani a thief who suspects that Belmondo sold him out to the cops.

As usual, Melville was working on a tight budget but had complete control over his film.  If the film is a European idea of an American crime thriller, it's still completely Melville's film with lots of tough guy stuff from the crooks and cops.

Melville is a director who everyone has been stealing from for years.

108 minutes.

1967 - LE SAMOURAI, Melville's supercool crime thriller is well, cool.

Jean-Pierre Melville's crime thriller Le Samourai,  is a very interesting piece of film making and he was lucky to get the perfect actor to play the hit man Jef Costello, Alain Delon. 

A lot has been written and discussed about the stylized structure of the film with Melville keeping the dialog to a minimum and the action tight and fast. Melville's direction is very meticulous with much attention to detail focusing on Costello's actions.  He steals a car with a set of master keys which he meticulously tries one at a time to find the right key.  He evades and elaborate trap by the police on the Paris subway and he creates a perfect alibi for a hit on a nightclub owner that is probably a little to perfect since it brings him to the attention of the Paris police who are about as ruthless as he is.

Melville has acknowledged his debt to American films, and he has Delon wear hats and trench coats like a 1940's film noir protagonist.  It looks a little anachronistic but it also looks very cool.

Speaking of cool what Le Samourai also has going for it is Alain Delon.  He moves through the film quiet and emotionless.  It's a performance that would have worked well in a silent film.

A film with style to spare, Jean Pierre Melville was a master of the crime film genre with a control of the medium that most filmmakers could only hope to achieve. 

105 minutes.

1972 - UN FLIC or A COP, Melville's last film

Jean Pierre Melville's final crime film before his heart attack at age 55 is kind of a letdown after his previous 4 films.  Un Flic has individually good and great scenes but story wise doesn't hang together very well. 

Continuing his fascination with American crime and gangster films, Melville appears to be going for a film where the cop isn't really much better than the gangster he is pursuing. The police inspector is about as ruthless as the criminals.

 Melville's interest in staging elaborate heists is really apparent in this film.  His bank robbery at the beginning of the film is a mini masterpiece in film making.  Later in the film, Melville stages another robbery on a moving train that is almost overly obsessive in it's detail.  This sequence isn't as effective because of the poor models and miniatures and it's obviously shot in a studio. 

The cast is kind of an international mash up.  Alain Delon is very good as the creepy emotionless cop.  Richard Crenna seems to be some sort of stand in or symbol for all the American like gangsters that Melville had been making films about in France for years.  This time Melville actually used an actual American actor.   Catherine Denevue doesn't really bring anything to the film and as usual looks like some sort of unreal science fiction creation. 

Probably not the film Melville was hoping for, Un Flic is a decent well made crime film, not really up to the standards of some of his previous films.

However, Un Flic is a good film to go out on for a director with a pretty impressive list of films.

1949 - LE SILENCE DE LA MER, aka The Silence of the Sea

Jean Pierre Melville filmed this World War II drama set during the occupation of France.  A German officer is billeted at the home of a Frenchmen living with his niece.  The film is essentially about the German trying to ingratiate himself into their lives. 

This is an interesting film.  The Frenchman and the niece decide to give the German the silent treatment, they literally do not speak throughout the entire film.   And, for a film set in occupied France the portrait of the German officer is unusually sympathetic.  The German completely believes that the two nations will mutually benefit from the occupation, culturally and socially.  The film is about his slow realization what  the actual effects of the occupation are doing to France.

Le Silence De La Mer is an impressive film from a great filmmaker at the beginning of his career.   The film was essentially shot on location in one room for very little money.    This is a great filmmaker demonstrating how to create a thoughtful and complex film with very limited resources.  Considering the extreme restraints, Melville made it visually and emotionally interesting.

Jean Pierre Melville was a filmmaker who always valued his independence throughout his career.  Melville's style was in the classic Hollywood tradition,  creating well constructed films on very small budgets.

1959 - Jean Pierre Melville's DEUX HOMMES DANS NEW YORK

French director Jean-Pierre Melville lover of all things American, particularly film noir movies, had an opportunity in 1959 to film in New York.

 

 A true auteur in the real sense, Melville wrote, directed and edited everyone of his films. Also a real independent filmmaker, Melville financed and built his own studio. The film about two French newspaper reporters searching for a missing United Nations diplomat turned out to be a disappointment. Melville's story was not very interesting and he had a serious tin ear when it came to getting decent performances out of his American actors.

The on location filming in New York had a nice documentary look to it, but the film was spoiled by an obnoxious jazz score which sounded like a parody. Melville himself played one of the two reporters and wasn't too bad, unfortunately every time he jumped into a car to check out the next clue the music blasted out on the soundtrack to alert the viewer something was about to happen. A good filmmaker but apparently a real character. Melville was known for wearing sunglasses and a trench coat which made him look like a movie detective. Melville was also known for wearing a cowboy hat while directing to add to his aura of quirkiness.

Melville knew he had failed with this film. After taking a couple of years off to rethink his approach to filmmaking, Jean-Pierre Melville came back with a series of impressive crime films.

 85 minutes.