by Allan Fish
(France 1955 103m) DVD1/2
Aka. Bob the Gambler
Je t’aime le Pigalle.
p Jean-Pierre Melville d Jean-Pierre Melville w Jean-Pierre Melville, Auguste le Breton ph Henri Decaë ed Monique Bonnot m Eddie Barclay, Jo Boyer art Claude Bouxin, Jean-Pierre Melville
Roger Duchesne (Bob Montagne), Isabelle Corey (Anne), Daniel Cauchy (Paolo), Andre Garret (Roger), Guy Decomble (Inspector Ledru), Gerard Buhr (Marc), Claude Cerval (Jean), Simone Paris (Yvonne), Colette Fleury (Suzanne), Howard Vernon (McKimmie),
If someone were to ask you what the coolest film ever made was, or at least the coolest character, it would be open to contention. Indeed, Hotdog magazine ran such a piece in late 2003 and of course the winner was a recent character (Fight Club‘s Tyler Durden, if my memory serves me). Yet for me, you can take all your James Bonds, your Tyler Durdens, your Jack Sparrows, hell even any other great French characters, such as Michel Poiccard in À Bout de Souffle; the one and only coolest character of all time is Bob, the compulsive gambler in Jean-Pierre Melville’s sublime heist movie. Nothing is said in this movie that cannot be intoned by a look or a gesture. This isn’t just cool, it’s cryogenic. Douglas Fairbanks Jnr once said in Angels Over Broadway, “this town’s a giant dice game…” Well, Bob certainly sees it that way.
Bob, the eponymous gambler, is down on his luck (“the way my luck’s going, I’d lose at Hopscotch!“). He’s an old young man, or a young old man, a legend of a recent past, so the narration goes, and he certainly looks like a past in search of a present. Well he gets a different sort of present, a sixteen year old girl for whom nothing is moral or immoral, and his taking her in as a platonic gesture coincides with a turn of luck. Buoyed by this, if secretly wishing he were young enough to bed the girl who has now taken up with his young friend, Paulo, he decides to plan one last heist. He may have gone down 20 years ago, but like all the great hoods, he just dreams of one last score. But this is no ordinary score, for he plans to go and do over the Deauville casino.
Bob le Flambeur is a love letter to Paris, to Montmartre and, in particular to the criminal underworld HQ known as the Pigalle. It’s a world of equal parts film noir and poetic realism, dreamily captured to its glistening essence by cinematographer Henri Decaë. Everybody dreams of making it big, either by robbery, gambling or pimping if you’re male, or securing a rich sugar daddy to escape becoming a pavement princess if you’re female. And Melville’s pavement princess is a honey indeed. Isabelle Corey was an unknown, a natural if limited actress, yet she nonetheless radiated pure insouciance and ripe sexuality and was happy to take her clothes off (though the subtitles get in the way of her nipples when lying on the bed, as if knowing we shouldn’t be looking). She may not be a classy filly, but she’s hot to trot, wearing no bra under her ample breast hugging sweater. Less innocent than many of Bardot’s characters of the same period, she’d “bloomed early for her age” and was ripe for the picking, with her legs open to anyone wishing admittance. She truly is one of the iconic women in crime film, not so much a femme fatale as a fille fatale, pure bloody jail-bait. In the other corner, we have Bob, living alone in his apartment overlooking Sacre Coeur, with a fruit machine as pure decoration, a trenchcoat and cigarette that seemed as irremovable as any since Bob Mitchum’s in Out of the Past. He owns this area, a legend in his own lifetime, around his beloved aptly named Heads or Tails Bar. Hell, even the local inspector likes him. He’s an icon for a bygone age through the eyes of an idolising present. If only the poor sod could get laid, he’d have found the girl more than willing.
Melville made many other studies of lonely cool, perhaps most famously Le Samouraï with Alain Delon, but for me Bob is his greatest film, a delirious, dark, brooding study in loneliness in luck and love which, as the sleeve on Criterion’s wonderful DVD states, “possesses all the formal beauty, finesse and treacherous allure of green baize.”
A truly great film by one of my absolute personal favorites among French directors.
I disagree strongly with Mr. Fish in his tabbing this as Melville’s greatest film, but he’s entitled to his own opinion, and his review is most fine. I would say Le Samurai, Army of Shadows and Le Circle Rouge are all greater.
Allan, an excellent and witty review that makes me want to run right out and get this movie! I’m ashamed to say I’ve never seen a movie by Melville, but then he was rediscovered relatively recently. He was unknown when I took film classes in college. I love any movie that shows Paris as it will never be again. The French directors of the time often seemed to make the city almost another character by filming so much outdoors. I just rewatched “The 400 Blows” the other night and was struck by how much of Paris it showed as Antoine went back and forth to school and roamed the streets. Decae must be the French cinematographer par excellence (perhaps along with Georges Perinal), and I always admire his work. Another one to add to my must-see list, along with “Le Samourai” and “Army of Shadows,” both of which I’ve read good things about.
Yes, R.D., while I am fairly certain Allan will respond, I would like to corroborate what you say here as this film, ARMY and LE SAMOURAI are magnificent. My favorite Melville of all however is LE CIRCLE ROUGE.
Typically, I have all of these on Criterion DVD. LE DOULOS and LA SILENCE DE LA MER are also essential Melvilles.
Thank you very much for your insightful response as always.
Le Cercle Rouge is overrated, R.D….the five major works are Le Silence de la Mer, Les Enfants Terribles, Bob le Flambeur, Le Samourai and Army in the Shadows.
As for Melville not being known till recently, maybe in the US (where laughably AITS only showed for the first time in 2005), but in the UK and Europe he’s always had a healthy following.
No more neglect, seek those five out…
“Le Cercle Rouge is overrated, R.D….”
I completely disagree R.D. It’s his best film, a position a number of our best critics have also proclaimed.
Allan and I will just have to agree to disagree.
as far as LES ENFANTS TEERIBLE, I have always praised that one to high heaven as well.
I would say Michel Poiccard is slightly cooler than Bob, but your review made me want to see the film again.
Thanks Film Dr., in behalf of Allan.
I like the film quite a bit, but I rank it below some of the others. What’s your position Film Dr. on this if I may ask?
Sam,
I tend to prefer Melville’s influence on Godard more than anything else. Les Enfants Terrible is impressive, but I like Bob le Flambeur the best.
Fair enough Film Dr.
Thanks very much for responding.