YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE. TO DIE … OR TO LIE
A fantastic policier film from the magnificent Jean-Pierre Melville, this is my second one of his and I am expecting to thoroughly enjoy the rest of his filmography. Les Doulos is an almost Proto Neo-Noir film, perhaps a sleek and sharp blueprint to the upcoming genre. Melville combines the classic noir elements with a slightly New-Wave style, it’s still very gritty and intoxicating but has that slight French New-Wave feel to it. Melville also weaves a richly textured tale of duplicity and foggy morality, skewing viewpoints and choices until it all ends in dire tragedy. There are many brilliant moments in this film, I really enjoyed the scene about 15 minutes to the end where the main protagonists were chatting in a bar, unravelling their past judgements of each other and clearing up any wrongfully conceived ideas, in the background is some flowing piano music played by the sole pianist sat by the bar. It’s such a great scene that strangely stood out to me out of many other incredible moments. This film is overall pretty fantastic, the majority of the performances are excellent, the film is masterfully stylish and filled with great imagery, the writing is superb and the dialogue is intricate, what more could you want from a film like this. I’m starting to love Jean-Pierre Melville, I can’t describe how excited I am to watch Le cercle Rouge 1970 and Army of shadows 1969 (my most recent blu ray pickups).
YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE. TO DIE … OR TO LIE
A fantastic policier film from the magnificent Jean-Pierre Melville, this is my second one of his and I am expecting to thoroughly enjoy the rest of his filmography. Les Doulos is an almost Proto Neo-Noir film, perhaps a sleek and sharp blueprint to the upcoming genre. Melville combines the classic noir elements with a slightly New-Wave style, it’s still very gritty and intoxicating but has that slight French New-Wave feel to it. Melville also weaves a richly textured tale of duplicity and foggy morality, skewing viewpoints and choices until it all ends in dire tragedy. There are many brilliant moments in this film, I really enjoyed the scene about 15 minutes to the end where the main protagonists were chatting in a bar, unravelling their past judgements of each other and clearing up any wrongfully conceived ideas, in the background is some flowing piano music played by the sole pianist sat by the bar. It’s such a great scene that strangely stood out to me out of many other incredible moments. This film is overall pretty fantastic, the majority of the performances are excellent, the film is masterfully stylish and filled with great imagery, the writing is superb and the dialogue is intricate, what more could you want from a film like this. I’m starting to love Jean-Pierre Melville, I can’t describe how excited I am to watch Le cercle Rouge 1970 and Army of shadows 1969 (my most recent blu ray pickups).
