© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p21
30/09/2013 11:18 par tellurikwaves
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p21
30/09/2013 11:18 par tellurikwaves
Revolutionary crime-noir, from the director of Le Samourai
Author: Graham Greene from United Kingdom (1)
27 March 2008
Bob Le Flambeur opens with a glimmering shot of early morning Paris, where we find the rugged,nonchalant hood Bob Montagne,sauntering through the neon lit streets, looking every bit the icon of cinema that he is. To Bob, everything in life is a gamble, an uncertainty, a ten-to-one shot. He inhabits a world of games and chances... as the gravel voice narration points out, "the city can be both heaven and hell, as long as you know how to play it". He is, as the title suggests, a man who lives and loves gambling. A one-time crook now taking it easy, we find him huddled in a smoky apartment - the walls painted black and white like a chessboard - hard at work towards yet another pay off.
When he isn't 'working', Bob lives the simple life, hanging out in bars with old pals or relaxing in his penthouse apartment.His only real companion is Paolo,a young tearaway who idolises and emulates Bob's look and lifestyle. The child of a former friend, Bob becomes the surrogate father figure to Paolo, looking out for him and making sure he isn't consumed by the lure of the mean streets.
Bob le Flambeur was one of Melville's earliest entries into the gangster cycle that would later give birth to his better-known film, Le Samourai. Like that film, Flambeur is a technically assured and understated journey into the underworld, employing a raw cinematic intensity, knowing irony and loose plot, which can probably be seen as an influence on contemporary filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Ringo Lam, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, David Mamet and Wong Kar-Wai.
*
It can also be seen as something of a revolutionary work, with Melville's bold use of real locations, available light and hand-held cameras offering an obvious precursor to the style of the later nouvelle vague, and, to great filmmakers like Godard, Chabrol and Truffaut. Like those directors, Melville has a strong understanding of genre conventions and the post-war Gangster ethos, and thus, crafts a film that is both European in style and sensibility, but at the same time, nods to the classic gangster movies of 30's and 40's Hollywood... giving us a cool and slick film, that still has enough edge and grit to make the characters seem like real people.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p20
30/09/2013 11:11 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p20
30/09/2013 11:11 par tellurikwaves
Cool and elegant blend of American gangster film and French sophisticated comedy of manners
Author: Galina from Virginia, USA
19 June 2007
Jean-Pierre Melville's "Bob le Flambeur" (1955) has been often called the first film of the French New Wave. First or not, French New Wave or not, "Bob le Flambeur" is one of the coolest and memorable films I've seen. The most fascinating element of this exquisite crime dram/noir film is its title character, Bob Montagne- Bob the Gambler (Roger Duchesne). All women wanted to be with him and all young men wanted to be him. He was the man well respected and liked by the cops, the criminals, and the gamblers alike - the king of cool, the elegant loser with his own respectable code of honor. He drove an American car and wore an American hat but he belonged to the streets of Montmartre, Paris, where he was born just as the film itself that could've been only made by a French director who admired American films and had created a perfect blend ofAmerican gangster film and French sophisticated comedy of manners.
Made back in 1955, the movie is fresh, crisp, sensual, modern and simply delightful. Having watched already all "Ocean's" movies, including Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack's classic, I see where the inspiration for them came from. "Bob Le Falmbeur" was released in the USA in 1982, nine years after Melville's death and became an instant cult hit. Often, cult movies are not the best made but it is not true in the case of "Bob le Flambeur". Its direction is perfect: seemingly simple and truly elegant, its cinematography is beautiful, its music score is amazing and its characters are not the caricatures - they are the real human beings of flesh and blood and they have something (or a lot) to lose. Acting is great by everyone with Roger Duchesne unforgettable and Isabelle Corey as a young streetwalker Anne whom Bob took under his wing, absolutely marvelous in her first role - child-like innocent yet already perfectly aware of her powers over the men, by the words of Bob's friend, "she will go far -she knows what she wants but does not show it".
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p19
30/09/2013 10:46 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p19
30/09/2013 10:46 par tellurikwaves
Gamble, Bob, Gamble, in it is the source of salvation
Author: poco loco
16 November 2006
Imagine a movie in which a gambler finds out about a huge payday at a casino and decides to pull off a major heist.He and a couple of friends find a rich backer to put up the money necessary to pull such a large heist and then Bob (the gambler) decides to enlist some others to help out. In the end, he has involved not 9, not 10, but 11 people in the heist. Sound familiar. This hugely influential film by Jean-Pierre Melville has spawned both versions of Ocean's 11 and is also often credited as the grandfather of the Nouvelle Vague movement
This movie is French, so unlike the American versions of Ocean's Eleven, there is no singing, no laughing, no hi-fiving, just straight-faced gambling, plotting and even the loving is grim and made without a smile. The characters are memorable, especially Bob and Anne as they go through life expecting no happiness. Bob never goes to bed before 6am, as he spends his nights, every night, gambling at different locations. This addiction is part of who he is and plays a key role in the twist at the end.
This movie is like a good strong Camembert. As with many French movies, definitely an acquired taste, but once one learns to appreciate the sharpness, one realizes that there is nothing comparable. Camembert, unlike bacon, is not the food of joy. But it is good, flavorful, and powerful in making one want to partake again and again. Until you feel the tanginess in your mouth, there is no describing the taste or effect, but it is definitely worth the effort to build an appreciation for it. 8/10
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p18
30/09/2013 10:40 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p18
30/09/2013 10:40 par tellurikwaves
Classic French crime movie from the 1950s. An influence on everyone from
Godard and Truffaut to Paul Thomas Anderson.
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia
27 April 2003
Cult director Jean-Pierre Melville was originally involved with French art legend Jean Cocteau, but really found his niche making hard boiled crime movies. 'Bob le flambeur' was the first major work by him, and he kept making movies up until the early 1970s with 'Dirty Money'. His work had a huge influence on the French New Wave led Godard and Truffaut (who cast him in a supporting role in 'Breathless'as an acknowledgment),and has proved to be a major inspiration for American film makers like Scorsese,Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson whose debut 'Hard Eight' owes 'Bob le flambeur' quite a debt
*
'Bob..'really knocked me out,and along with the equally brilliant 'Rififi'(à Paname)directed by Jules Dassin and released the same year, it's one of THE great crime movies of the 1950s, and should be mentioned in the same breath as Huston's 'The Asphalt Jungle' and Kubrick's 'The Killing'.
All four films have had an enormous influence on most subsequent movies in the heist genre. 'Bob's plot is quite simple but the story itself isn't the half of it. What Melville DOESN'T say is just as important as what he does, and the viewer has to piece a lot of it together for himself. Roger Duchesne is super cool as Bob, the ageing gambler on a perpetual bad streak, Daniel Cauchy is excellent as his cocky young protege Paolo, and Isabelle Corey is sexy and intriguing as Anne, the jailbait who gets involved with them both.
*
Personally I prefer this movie and 'Rififi' to 'Breathless' and any French New Wave I've seen to date, but that says as much about my taste as much as the movies themselves. Even so I highly recommend 'Bob le flambeur' to anybody who involves crime movies. It's a classic of the genre, and still fantastically entertaining.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p17
30/09/2013 10:08 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p17
30/09/2013 10:08 par tellurikwaves
BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955) - DVD Review(fin)
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta
13 June 2004
Apart from the usual conventions of typical French crime dramas, BOB LE FLAMBEUR introduces some new forms of technique which anticipated the off-the-cuff style of the Nouvelle Vague by some years: the editing has a strange, almost disjointed rhythm to it which is particularly felt near the end during the long gambling sequence at the casino; the hand-held camera-work lends it a slightly amateurish look which suits the mood perfectly;a vaguely avant-gardist touch is also evident in the set design,as in the domino styled walls of the gambling-dens Bob frequents and the closet in his apartment that is fitted with a privately-owned slot machine!
*
Another interesting aspect (derived perhaps from Julien Duvivier's PEPE' LE MOKO [1936]) is the mutual admiration that is present between Bob and the Police Inspector played by Guy Decomble.Unlike most of Melville's other work, and particularly his film noirs, the gloomy 'atmosphere' is here counter-pointed by a deft playful mood that makes the film extremely enjoyable despite its fairly slow pace. The film's conclusion then, improbable as it may seem, provides a perfect and deliciously ironic twist - complete with a wonderful closing line.
*
Criterion's DVD also includes a rather vague radio interview, conducted in English in 1961, with Jean-Pierre Melville who is made distinctly uneasy by interviewer Gideon Bachmann's frustratingly opaque questions. We learn, however, of Melville's great love of American cinema as well as his own work's belated but well-deserved international recognition.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p16
30/09/2013 10:00 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p16
30/09/2013 10:00 par tellurikwaves
BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955) - DVD Review(1)
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta
13 June 2004
Yesterday I have watched Jean-Pierre Melville's BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955) for the first time, by way of Criterion's exemplary DVD edition. The film is a typical 50s French noir in its presentation of divided loyalties among a gang of crooks, women causing trouble, an elaborate heist-gone-wrong, police interrogation, etc. With this, Melville's first outing in a genre he later made his own, the director shows he is already at one with the milieu, capturing its every nuance and mannerism with almost effortless ease.
The cast is relatively low-key but all the main roles are admirably filled. Unfortunately, none went on to do much else of importance (apart from Howard Vernon) - and it was, in fact, lead actor Roger Duchesne's penultimate film. Looking a bit like Rudolf Klein-Rogge (who as Dr. Mabuse also played a gambling crime lord), he exudes a smooth charisma and is quite arresting in his playing. Isabel Corey, still a teenager but looking incredibly sexy and mature, was literally hand-picked by Melville himself for the role of Anne, the lovely waif whom Bob takes under his wing but whose inexperience eventually leads, in part, to his downfall.
*
The film also makes brief yet subtle use of nudity which, at that time, was not something one would hope to find in American movies! Daniel Cauchy as Paulo, Bob's right-hand man who also falls for Corey, acquits himself well too here and, on the DVD, delivers an intelligent and delightful 20-minute interview which gives some insight into Melville's working methods, the film's pain-staking shooting schedule (it took some two years to complete during which time Cauchy found time to appear in another four movies!) and also the director's insistence in portraying the 'correct' way of dying on screen. Howard Vernon has a brief but pivotal role as the shady Scotsman who offers to finance Bob's 'scheme'.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p15
30/09/2013 07:38 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p15
30/09/2013 07:38 par tellurikwaves
Melville: two syllables - magic.(fin)
Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland
29 August 2000
The use of the narrator is interesting too; voiced by Melville, creator of the film, he is also a kind of God-creator, talking about heaven and hell, taking us on a journey from one to the other; talking from the darkness, about how lives cross, but destinies don't meet, than creating a work where crossed destinies are crucial; intruding at bizarre moments, with prior knowledge of the characters' fates before the action has actually determined them. This, of course, dissipates tension, as does the clownish music, mocking and undermining as much as it propels the action, and the characters' theatricality, their awareness of their roles (eg the rehearsals for the heist like a play).
The filming of this goes way beyond Melville's heist models, 'The Asphalt Jungle' (his favourite movie) and 'Rififi' - after all the plot elements have been put in place - the plan, the preparations, the tip-off, the suspense - Melville moves to a completely different register, and what had been a crime film involving many interested parties becomes a solitary, private rite, Bob's gambling in the casino is a heightened, hallucinatory dream, not quite a rite of death, but a rite of middle-age, of letting go the trappings of youth, also paving the way for the great climax of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly': the shoot-out is pure, beautiful, dream abstraction.
For many, great cinema is defined in rarefied terms of high art, snobbily above the detritus of popular culture. For some of us, though, great cinema means a transformative enriching and expanding of popular genres, a cinema that can speak to everybody, not above them, but making the familiar strange. Keaton. Hitchcock. Hawks. Whale. Ophuls. Sirk. Leone. Melville.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p14
30/09/2013 07:33 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p14
30/09/2013 07:33 par tellurikwaves
Melville: two syllables - magic.(3)
Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland
29 August 2000
As he walks in the early dawn at the beginning, he looks into a tarnished mirror, a further visualisation of the difference between one's self and one's role, identity etc. In an extraordinary long shot, the road-sprayer that circles Bob is echoed in the circular shapes of a nearby park, echoing the circles of the film, the vicious circle Bob gets trapped in, the circles of the casino, the cycles of life. He watches as Anne is picked up by an American motorcyclist - Bob as helpless observer; the movie will dramatise the various ill-fated ways in which he will try to move from passive to active,to stop being a pawn of fate;the frequent unmotivated angle shots undermine this.
*
Like all Melville's films, this is not the story of a gangster, but a dismantling of all the concealed codes, ideologies, assumptions, of the gangster, of masculinity, of Hollywood cinema.One of the ways 'Bob' breaks with traditional cinema is in its anti-Oedipal bias.A conventional film often uses an Oedipal trajectory,usually showing an immature hero's moral progress,often defeating an older figure, taking his place and power, and winning the girl. This is a necessary process of continuity for the social order. And this seems to be fulfilled here, as Paolo, who hero-worships Bob, obeying him like a father, takes his place, takes his girl, takes his apartment to have the sex Bob can't have anymore, even using Bob's gestures.
*
Bob is a shadow of himself, de trop in his own home. As it should be. The subsequent narrative could be seen as an attempt of Bob's to regain his identity and power, and to emasculate Paolo.This sublime film is full of little twists of the norm like this. Isabelle Corey is unprecedented among all film heroines, her amoral, seemingly indifferent sexuality far more suggestive and powerful than her contemporary, Bardot's - her fulfilling her femme fatale role does not result in tragedy any more than Bob's fulfilling his gangster role does.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p13
30/09/2013 07:27 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p13
30/09/2013 07:27 par tellurikwaves
Melville: two syllables - magic.(2)
Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland
29 August 2000
The hero is what the title suggests, a man who can't stop gambling, moving from one late-night backroom poker-game to another,betting most of his money on horse-races, leaving his diet to a throw of the dice; he even has a fruit machine in his well-appointed flat, where his art collection seems to consist of framed carpet. Yet, ironically, he is a methodical man, keeping to the same routine, the same hours, one night losing a fortune, another making one. Gambling is his only vice now; formerly a con, he did time 20 years previously for a failed bank job - he now considers himself too old for the criminal grind.
After one particularly unprofitable spree, and a chance conversation with a pimp-turned-croupier, Bob and an old friend decide to rob the casino safe at Deauville, and begin rounding up the usual experts and investors, minutely orchestrating the heist. Almost immediately the plans fall through-the dissatisfied wife of the inside man informs the police as does a thug Bob once refused to help. The casino boss is informed, the police lie in waiting. And yet Bob goes ahead...
For a man who took his pseudonym from one of the great novelists; who adapted most of his films (including 'Bob') from books; and who wrote his own screenplays, Melville has little patience with words, and the story of Bob is brilliantly encapsulated in a series of establishing images. The opening narration eulogises Montmartre with shots defining milieu in realistic terms. yet, when we first see Bob, he is in a setting of extreme artifice, with symbolic chess walls (a recurring pattern) and pictures of, rather than actual, locations.
*
He puts on his trenchcoat and fedora, his signs of movie criminality; whereas Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart's characters WERE gangsters by their deeds, Bob plays the role of a gangster just as Ledru plays the role of a cop, and Anne plays the role of vamp or femme fatale - they are recognisably human behind their 'types', but, in this world made of movies, they cannot do the sensible, plausible thing, but are locked into their roles, despite Ledru's humanistic insistence otherwise. Sense would tell Bob to give up the heist; his pre-ordained role means that he cannot.
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p12
30/09/2013 07:21 par tellurikwaves
-
© DR -BOB LE FLAMBEUR de Jean Pierre Melville (1956) p12
30/09/2013 07:21 par tellurikwaves
Melville: two syllables - magic.(1)
Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland
29 August 2000
The first of Jean-Pierre Melville's astonishing and unique cycle of gangster films, which have been variously calledironic structuralist postmodernist deconstructionist existential,Lacanian oneiric philosophical etc.Their influence on modern cinema has been incalculable -Melville's creative indepedence,location shooting and low-budgets inspiring the nouvelle vague; his filming of violent men in action everyone from Scorcese and Coppola to Tarantino and Woo; his deconstruction of genre encouraging Bava and Leone.
Yet in many ways, 'Bob' is the least typical of Melville's thrillers. Where, say, 'Le Samourai' exists in a sparse, abstract, geometric, dreamlike Paris, the Montmartre of 'Bob' in vibrantly alive, with its nightclubs, bars, stray GIs, petty hoods, casual sex, late-night gambling. Where in 'Samourai', the hero's character is pared down to psychological abstraction, Bob is a recognisable human being, stern, but sweet, honourable, a Chandlerian knight, with back-history and motivation. Other characters are plausible, if elusive, also. Where 'Samourai' is a masterpiece of tone, in which direction, acting, cinematography, narrative, sound, colour, decor all cohere into a perfect whole, 'Bob' is a riot of clashing modes, more reminiscent of the gleeful iconoclasm of the nouvelle vague - parody and action, humour and seriousness, dream and realism, co-exist in fertile, thrilling tension.
*