Le joueur

"Le joueur" inaugurates a bad period for Autant-Lara .He probably had in mind his big plan "Tu ne Tueras Point" -which remains impossible to find or see even in 2007- and all he did between 1958 and 1961 is almost worthless.

"Le joueur" has a splendid cast ,but I've rarely seen all these actors worse.Bernard Blier and Françoise Rosay overplay whereas Gerard Philipe and Liselote Pulver do not seem to care about their characters.

One can ,at a pinch,save the scene when grandma plays for high stakes and gambles away her fortune cause she does not want his nephew to inherit her pile .One of Rosay's lines is terribly prophetic :"you're so nervous,you'll die young!" Philipe would die two years later.

The last lines of the movie are a vindication of gambling by the Russian writer.

Something missing. Is the lead observation about a sketch of a beautiful text. The error - maybe the too good intentions. And the less courage. And the fight of actors against the text. It coild be better. And that remains yhe lead sin of film.