Le doulos

Le Doulos is a very good gangster noir from Jean-Pierre Melville. Like his other crime films its American influenced but with French style. It's really a recreation of the American film-noir of the 40's in 60's Paris. As such it's very stylised. Despite the time period, all of the actors look, act and dress like characters out of a hard-boiled movie from the 1940's. Trench coats and hats are the order of the day despite not being in the least bit in fashion in the 60's. The actors were all instructed to perform in a very controlled stylistic way that mimicked those old movies. This was seemingly something that Jean-Paul Belmondo found very unsatisfying, not surprising from an actor famed for working with Jean-Luc Godard whose style was extremely loose and off-the-cuff by comparison.

Like noir, this one has a cast of characters where none are good in the traditional sense. It's about a thief who has just been released from prison. He immediately gets involved in criminal activity but is sold out to the police. He suspects his best friend is a police informer ('le doulos'). It's about betrayals, friendship and people assuming the worst of each other; the honour/dishonour of thieves. Of course, this being a noir, things do not run in a straightforward manner and there are several twists and turns before we reach the end. Look out also for an early cinematic nude scene featuring Fabienne Dali who also made a memorable appearance as a sexy witch in Mario Bava's Gothic horror film Kill, Baby…Kill!

Described by some as an example of 'film noir' or even as an early 'neo-noir', this is the work of auteur, Jean Pierre Melville and as such less a genre work and more his very own. Unlike the American originals, largely spewed out in their dozens and at great speed and low cost, often as B pictures geared to appeal to as large an audience as possible with elements as sensational as could be got away with, this Melville picture has more lofty aims. The director was in the French resistance during the Nazi occupation during war and as he shows here is much more interested in the world of police informers and collaboration than the more classic 'noir' tropes of isolation, alienation and the temptations of the 'femme fatale'. Nevertheless there are some wonderful sequences, like the opening shot on location beneath the railway lines and we have cinematographer, Nicolas Hayer {Panique (1946) and Orphee (1950)} to thank for these because Melville, largely financing his own projects, was always working to a budget and much of his interior studio set pieces here are well below expected standards and jar horribly with the more expansive and expressionist exteriors. Being French, the film also has far too much dialogue and a few scenes in the middle and an extended one towards the end are a considerable drag on what should have been a much more snappy affair. Finally, whilst I acknowledge that there are several US 'noir' classics that have nonsensical of difficult to follow plots, this effort seems far too unnecessarily complicated for the simple tale that it ultimately is.

Le Doulos is not as well-known as Melville's later colour pictures, but very much undeservedly so. Gangster films rarely manage to surprise their audience with the plot (unless they sacrifice logic as so often in Raymond Chandler's stories), but here we have an exception. This one is entirely logical and entirely surprising; an extraordinary gangster story of trust, betrayal and code of honour. It is impossible to correctly guess the outcome even when you are through 2/3 of the film.

Highly recommended.

Jean Pierre Melville was a brilliant and fatalistic filmmaker who hardly found any recognition by anyone in his own home country except from other filmmakers. Only abroad was he given credit as a film director of exceptional talent. For example, his turn as film director for Le Doulos(1961) exposes him as a filmmaker of three dimensional skills. In films like Le Doulos(1961), things such as expressionism become an essential part of Melville's cannon of films.

Jean Paul Belmondo is one of the most famous French tough guys besides Alain Deleon, and Yves Montond. In a way the Silen character played by the actor can be seen as Michel of Breathless(1960) if Michel had lived and became an informer. Belmondo was one of the coolest actors from French cinema for his time. The person of Silen is hard to pin down because one never knows whose side he is on.

Minor classic of French Noir especially in the 1950s-1960s. There are two reasons why I think it to be. First, the story and plot are compelling to follow. Two, many of the essences of film making is brought together to Le Doulos(1955) with some good film execution and competent screenwriting.

Some ingenious plot twists are used to keep the viewer on his or her toes. These plot twists are done in a manner that makes sense and yet retains some form of unpredicability. They are never used for the sake of using them nor are badly wasted as for instance in Wild Things(1998). The plot twists of Le Doulos(1961) are examples of what was one of many big trademarks in the French gangster picture.

Le Doulos(1961) deals with small time gangsters whose beliefs in honor and loyalty are pretty slim. In the gangster world of Melville the qualities of honor and loyalties are nearly extinct and replaced by betrayal and greed. Almost every character in Le Doulos(1961) is someone who can not be trusted and has a duel nature about them. The director never paints a romantic outlook for the criminals of Le Doulos(1961) and that's what makes it effective as a crime thriller.

Narcissism is a major motif for Le Doulos(1961) especially in the behavior of Silen. In many of Melville's main characters from films such as Le Doulos(1961) and Le Samurai(1967) there is a narcissistic feeling that compensates for the emptyness that surrounds their inner body. This is especially true for the Melville characters of Silen and Jeff whose only loyalties are to themselves. That is one element that makes Jean Pierre Melville a fatalistic filmmaker.

The acting in Le Doulos has its shares of ups and downs depending on an individual actor's performance but for the main two the acting is quite good. Jean Paul Belmondo exhibits his strength as an actor in playing the informer, Silen. Serge Reggiani as Maurice Faugel plays his character with a dogged tiredness that is reminicent of Jean Servais's performance in Rififi(1955). Contains a small co starring role for Michel Piccoli who became a major leading actor for many well known film directors including Luis Bunuel, Jean Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol.

Might be the most underrated picture of Jean Pierre Melville's gangster motion pictures. Does not get the same acclaim as the director's best..I.E., Bob Le Flambeur(1955), Le Samurai(1967), or even Le Cercle Rouge(1970). Le Doulos(1961) has many themes that Jean Pierre Melville return over and over again in his crime films. It is very good at developing tension that bursts open like a cantaloupe.

Le Doulos's direction gets some terrific visual ques from Melville as well as a tight execution of plotting. Jean Paul Belmondo was Jean Pierre Melville's second alter ego after Alain Delon which helped make them into a great actor-director combo. The Paris locations are beautifully breathtaking and fantasticly pictured on film for Le Doulos(1961). The camera and the black and white photography contributes to making the locations a main part of the action.

German film director, Volker Schlondorf first worked in films as an assistant director like Le Doulos(1961) for Jean Pierre Melville(1961)[Volker Schlondorf must have been heavily influenced by Melville when later becoming a film director himself]. The heist sequence of Le Doulos(1961) is not quite on the grandeur level of Rififi(1955) but does fine on its own in a low key way. The ending deals with redemption and the price the two character suffer for achieving their goal of redemption. Le Doulos(1961) is a French variation of John Ford's The Informer(1935) that uses different ideas and, different results, and different plot importances.

More often than not, French gangster films that owe so much to early American gangster films come off as cakes with more icing than cake. This is not the case with Jean-Pierre Melville, whose Bob le Flambeur is a powerful tale of a compulsive gambler who attempts to right his own life and the lives of those he cares for. In Le Doulos, the story focuses on a gangster, Maurice, just released from prison who immediately gets back on the other side of the law and begins to get involved in the ever-constant struggle between French police and organized crime.

This film obviously owes a great deal to early American gangster films, as so much of Melville does, but what makes it slightly different is the complexity of character and plot Melville injects into the story. There are numerous layers of action going on here; each character is as duplicitous as possible so motivations are always in question and the audience never really can tell who exactly is on which side until the final conclusion. Yet, it is never too confusing and never dull to watch as Melville invites us to explore closer the beautiful fluid camera work and the stunning and stark cinematography.

The acting is also quite effective, especially Serge Reggiani as the world-worn Maurice whose face says more than anything else, and French cinema legend Jean-Paul Belmondo as the too cool for his own good Silien. All in all, a very entertaining and well-made caper thriller that compared to today's shoot 'em ups consists of more than enough cake with the right amount of icing as well.