If you lived here you'd be stylish by now

I'm not usually a fan of gangster films, but somehow Jean-Pierre Melville makes the life of crime in 1970 Paris awfully style filled and seductive. The colors sucked me in immediately. Le Cercle Rouge is undoubtedly the template that many later crime dramas looked to as their barometer. Beyond merely building a moral compass, warning of the inevitable evils of men, Melville's existentialism in Le Cercle Rouge created a strange Le Samorai-like belief in the art of one's craft, no matter that the craft involved was pulling a jewel heist of extreme daring and  wealthy return. Early in the 140 minutes film a scene popped out, screaming "Miller's Crossing", but it also prompted 'Birch Forest', 1903, by Gustav Klimt, so Melville is not without his own footnotes. The minimal soundtrack or remarkable lack of sound at key moments was shocking in this age of required constant aural interlude to occupy the wandering viewer.  Bob Le Flambeur is another chapter in his book of cool, detailing the unchangeable fate of following a charted path until it fatally falters. Recommended fellow fabulous French films: La Baie des Anges by Jacques Demy, Elevator to the Gallows by Louis Malle.

Comments

[danny g]

I saw Le Cercle Rouge about three years ago and I'm still telling people they should go and watch it as if I had just seen it yesterday. John Woo is supposedly doing a re-make...kinda scary.

So damn cool!

-d

[jtm]

and how did you manage to publish this in the middle of your fine fine radio show this morning?

jim

[Mark Allen]

Whoa DJ T., you've name-checked one of my favotire films of all time: Jacques Demy's "La Baie des Anges" - wowza, whatta movie! I'm *still* trying to find a version on DVD that has english subtitles. I have reserved "Le Cercle Rouge" for future judgement.

[DJ Trouble]

I wrote this post last night, forgot to publish it this morning, so i enlisted the fabulous skills of our own mike lupica to press the magical bells. I originally saw La Baie des Anges through Netflix, with subtitles, so i imagine it is available commercially.

[James]

Another fine Melville film is Army of Shadows, which was made in the late 60's but first released in the U.S. last year. It's one of the most harrowing war movies I've ever seen, though it's only tangentially related to actual combat (the film follows members of the French Resistance under the Nazi occupation during WWII).

[Chris L]

As great as the Melville films mentioned above are, his "Army of Shadows," about French Resistance fighters during WWII, is even better. It was released for the first time in the US earlier this year and is still being screened at select spots around the country. Melville manages to transplant the noir cool of his gangster pics onto a WWII film while adding several layers of complexity along the way. I think it's a masterpiece. http://www.rialtopictures.com/shadows.html

[Chris L]

Ah, I knew that would happen.

[Rix]

Dusting off my Miles Davis soundtrack for Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud.

[brock]

Elevator to the Gallows by Louis Malle is a perfect movie in every facet of the word.