Bob le flambeur

It can be frustrating to read reviews of foreign films in Daily Variety, routinely gave tepid notices for European films later deemed classics. Was it Hollywood industry protectionism, or did they really think a French film like Bob le flambeur was ‘of local interest only?’  Few of director Jean-Pierre Melville’s movies were exported for American distribution, and he did not share in the 1960s rage for European filmmakers.

We first read about Jean-Pierre Melville from Portugal-born critic Rui Nogueira, at a time when his films just weren’t available here. Melville was considered old-school, even though Jean-Luc Godard praised his work and used him as an actor in his New Wave hit  Breathless. Released after the turmoil and revolutionary fervor of the 1968 strikes, Melville’s masterpiece of the Occupation  Army of Shadows was all but ignored, as obsolete, irrelevant, invalid. But the director had a lot to say about the experience — he himself had been active in the Resistance.

Army of Shadows had a token release in 1970, but remained so obscure that a 21st-century revival was treated like a premiere. Melville’s second urban thriller  Two Men in Manhattan still feels ‘unknown,’ despite the existence of a great Blu-ray. Bob le flambeur was given a small release here only in 1982, after Jean-Pierre Melville’s reputation had been revived at film festivals.

Melville didn’t make very many movies; Bob le flambeur is said to have taken months to complete, being filmed piecemeal as financing arrived. But it had good commercial prospects, as a natural follow-up to the previous year’s smash hit  Du Rififi chez les hommes, employing the same writer, Auguste le Breton. Breton had also been a Resistance operative; another crime film made from one of his books is Henri Verneuil’s  The Sicilian Clan.

Melville loved John Huston’s  The Asphalt Jungle, and was not happy when Jules Dassin’s Rififi attracted attention as the first French movie to adapt the ‘heist movie’ formula. Melville’s movie is a bit more romantic, as his main character is a silver-haired gentleman instead of one of Huston or Dassin’s burnt-out ex-cons. Captured by cameraman Henri Decaë in a natural and informal B&W, the film’s locale, ambience and character nuances are French all the way.

Professional gambler Bob Montagné (Roger Duchesne) served time years ago for bank robbery, but has since stayed clear of overt criminal activity. He’s a respected fixture in the night life of a certain Paris neighborhood, and is known for helping people out, particularly youngsters. He plays the paternalistic mentor for Paolo (Daniel Cauchy), and looks out for Anne (Isabelle Corey), a promiscuous young thing who the unscrupulous Marc (Gérard Buhr) wants to put out on the street. Bob is friendly with inspector Ledru (Guy Decomble) as well.

A run of bad gambling luck then tempts Bob to put together a heist caper with the aim of knocking off a large casino in Deauville. It’s a gamble few have won, but Bob doesn’t seem anxious about its chances for success — he seems to be doing it for almost existential reasons.

Bob le flambeur benefits from ‘street’ cinematography that looks like documentary work with a better eye for composition. Hand-held shots abound, but interiors are still filmed in a more conventional studio manner. Cameraman Henri Decaë would later shoot many fashionable features but he made his name with location work for Louis Malle ( Elevator to the Gallows) and René Clément ( Purple Noon). With so much exterior filming done on actual streets and roads of 1954-56, Bob le flambeur is a literal time capsule of a long-gone Montmartre, a collection of nightclubs and bars where colorful, unsavory night crawlers plot their next moves.

The modest budget does intrude every so often, but Melville fully captures the French equivalent of the lowlifes in John Huston’s caper film, and in a more natural context. Bob is liked by the denizens of Montmartre, and the cops as well. He takes care of his friends. Bar owner Yvonne (Simone Paris) appreciates Bob’s having set her up in business. Bob does what he can to sheperding young Paulo away from Marc’s sleazy schemes. When he takes in the aggressively sexual Anne, it’s not to take advantage of her, but to convince her that she has value beyond what her body can get her.

Bob Montagné is a genuine gambling addict, and admits it. He keeps a slot machine in a closet… are they illegal, or does he think it doesn’t suit the décor?  When we first see Bob he seems to be doing well enough. A few horse races and baccarat tables later, he’s broke and ready to break all of his own rules.

The movie didn’t have the luxury of big stars. Roger Duchesne hadn’t made a picture in years, despite being popular in the 1930s. He was actually something like the character he plays, in trouble with the law. Melville enlisted him on the rebound from two-year prison stay after a robbery. When Duchesne’s Bob Montagné first glances into a dirty mirror, he says, “The face of a hood.”  But it’s not the sickly noir face of an ex-con that we might expect. Bob is middle-aged but hasn’t lost his good looks. Were he to smile, we might be reminded more of Jacques Tati than Jean Servais of Rififi.

Bob doesn’t smile very much as he tools through the Paris streets in his Plymouth, prepping his 800 million-franc heist. For a 1950s caper film it is relatively unconcerned with technical details. Bob’s biggest problem is working with nonprofessionals that haven’t his experience — punks who talk too much and attract too much attention. His main protegé Paulo is as nice as he is well-intentioned. But his big mouth is a serious detriment.

Paulo is second-billed Daniel Cauchy, an experienced young actor who had a small role in Jacques Becker’s superb  Touchez pas au grisbi. Cauchy looks as if he could be Sean Penn’s father. Also billed above Roger Duchesne is Melville’s young discovery Isabel Corey, who was only 15 when first hired to play Anne. Corey has a knack for looking not-too-bright and vacantly sensual. Promoted as an answer to Brigitte Bardot, her brief nude bits and risqué nightclub outtits fulfill the lurid male fantasy seen on most every American pocketbook cover, but not in their Hollywood film adaptations.

Gentleman crook Bob allows Anne to live in his airy apartment, but does not take sexual advantage of her. He is feeling his age, and anyway, all of his extra energy goes into his gambling habit. If there’s a game to be played somewhere, nothing can distract him. His comments have a philosophical detachment, as if he’s accepted Life as a big game, one at which one shouldn’t expect to consistently win. Bob’s observations of those around him are choice. Even when translated in the English subtitles, many are worthy of American hardboiled writers.

Among the more recognizable actors is Howard Vernon as the money man for Bob’s caper. Vernon starred as a troubled German officer in Melville’s very first movie made right after WW2,  Le silence de la mer.

Irony figures heavily in Bob le flambeur’s Big Deauville Heist. Melville concentrates more on character than he does the caper mechanics, doing without disguises,, high-tech gadgets to crack a safe, or specialty talents like climbing up a building. More satisfying than the usual surprise twist, the great ending makes a complete a statement about Melville’s gambler hero. We find ourselves understanding Bob’s existential detachment as we watch his dreams come true in a phenomenal winning streak he’s waited his whole life to experience. A couple of Melville’s later pictures emphasize style over content. This first crime effort delivers an amazing setting and character insights we don’t expect from a genre film.