Monday, March 28, 2017
086 - Le Doulos (The Hat), 1963, France. Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville.
The credits show. White on black. The music starts. A beating sound. A metronome. A ticking clock. Time is ticking. Time is running out.
A man walks down a walkway in the dark side of the city. Walking as if to the ticking. Walking as if to the tocking. Walking as if to his destiny.
Who is this man?
Some people call him Maurice.
He walks. In a hat. In a trenchcoat. Down the walkway in the dark side of the city.
A raised sidewalk with railings. Under bridges. In the half-world. The demi-monde.
The camera follows him. A tracking shot. Without a cut. For two minutes, thirty-four seconds.
The average man walks 3 miles per hour. If this man is walking this speed, then for this length of time he travels 677.6 feet, or 225.867 yards.
That is two and a quarter football fields.
Imagine laying down dolly track that long. And pushing a camera dolly that far. And holding a camera that steadily for that long. And walking in character that far at that pace. As if to the music. Without flinching.
In the middle of the walk the camera tilts up at the underside of the bridge. The railroad bridge. The steel bridge. The steel trestles. Held by trusses. Trusses holding trestles. Trestles and trusses. The bars above him. Like prison bars. The bars beside him. On the railing. The railing beneath the railway. More bars. More prison bars. The light beaming through.
The camera tilts back down.
The man walks.
Through the light. Through the darkness.
To the Avenue Mozart.
To the house with the stairs. Remember those stairs. Not for this movie. But for others.
He enters the house.
He looks at his reflection in the cracked mirror.
His reflection is cracked.
He walks up the stairs.
A voice asks him if he has eaten.
No.
Get some food.
The man is Gilbert Varnove. His friend. Gilbert works at his table. His workbench. On jewelry. The bijoux.
If you ever hear of a theater called The Bijoux, it means The Jewels.
Gilbert works on the jewels. Lots of jewels. 800,000 in jewels. He works for the fences. The men who will sell the jewels. One fence for the gold. One fence for the gems. He separates the gems from the gold.
Rene Lefevre plays Gilbert. We saw Rene Lefevre the other day. In Le Million (1,000,000) (1931) (069, March 10). As Michel. The painter who won the lottery but left the ticket in his jacket pocket. Which has now been passed through five pairs of hands. And for which he spends the film chasing in madcap hijinks with his fiancée Beatrice.
It is now thirty-two years later. Rene Lefevre does not play a young man. Racing in madcap hijinks. He plays an old man. Sitting at a table. Working on jewels. Quietly. Steadily. With purpose. He brings older-generation star power to this film. And gravitas.
He asks Maurice to get something to eat.
He sits at the table facing the window.
With his back to Maurice.
They talk.
Maurice asks to borrow his gun.
That is unlike Maurice.
Maurice does not carry a gun.
He wants to borrow it for protection.
Gilbert tells him to look in the upper-right drawer for the gun. In the back-right corner for the ammo.
He asks Maurice to get some food. For the third time.
He stands up. He turns around. He sees Maurice. He sees the gun. He sees betrayal.
Bam!
Gilbert falls to the floor. Taking the table with him. Spilling the jewels all over the floor. Knocking over the lamp. Which swings upside down. Hanging by the cord. Hanging. And swinging.
The light moves like a pendulum across the room. A metronome. A ticking clock. Time is ticking. Time is running out.
A car is coming. With two men and a lady. Nuttheccio, the owner of the Cotton Club. Fabienne his girl. Who used to be with a man named Silien. Who might now be a rat. An informant. A doulos. And Nuttheccio's partner Armand.
Maurice looks out the window. He sees the car. He sees the men. He sees that he must get out of there fast.
But he must get the jewels first. Which are scattered all over the floor. And the cash. And the gun.
The men leave the car parked with Fabienne waiting. She hears a train pass by. She remembers the train.
The men see the swinging light in the upper window. The swinging lamp.
Maurice pockets the jewels. The cash. And the gun. He runs downstairs. Tries to open the back door. The back door will not open.
He cannot go to the front door. The front door is about to open.
He opens a window. Jumps out the window. Runs around back. Runs away.
Maurice makes it to a quiet place. A street lamp. He digs a hole. Buries the gun. Buries the jewels. Buries the cash.
He goes home.
This film is a thriller. And it is thrilling.
It is written in a taut mathematical narrative structure.
With two protagonists. And two interrogations. And three hoods. And four partners. And four cops. And three jobs. And three women.
And more twists than a French braid.
With an ending. Followed by an ending. Followed by an ending.
With future German star director Volker Schlondorff working as Melville's 1st AD.
Produced by the great Carlo Ponti.
Starring Nouvelle Vague darling Jean-Paul Belmondo. Who steals the show.
Starring Italian born Serge Reggiani. Who steals the show.
Two years after this movie, Reggiani, in his mid-40s, will begin a new career as a singer. And go on in his second career to popular and critical acclaim. He will also continue acting in film through 1990.
Le Doulos is easily one of the most entertaining films we have seen so far this year.
Intelligent. Complex. Tense. Mathematical. Surprising.
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