Le môme

Corneau aims high,much higher than Melville,without that director's ridiculous metaphysical pretensions.He actually tries to imitate the American film Noir (which Melville tried to do too),not only those of Scorcese ("shades of "taxi driver" ) but also the golden age of Wise,Siodmak,Walsh ...

The best of his work remain his early efforts:" police python 357" and "La Menace" ;these movies have in common a solid,if implausible,screenplay.Things begin to deteriorate beyond that point :"Le Choix Des Armes" relied more on the actors than on a well-constructed plot."Le Mome" is even worse: the screenplay is poor,mean and is devoid of any interest .The cop-and-babe story has been told and told and told and TOLD and Corneau and Clavier (writer) cannot renew it. There are much nudity and a lot of love scenes between Anconina (good but not exactly what you call a sex symbol)and his statuesque black co-star,an interminable car chase .That does not mean a thing when you don't have ,say,a Simenon book to help you with the atmosphere.

Another danger is to use great songs in a soundtrack:when you hear Otis Redding sing " dock of the bay" or "try a little tenderness" ,you forget all about the picture and you are under the spell ,not of the movie,but of this fantastic voice.

I won't say that's a bad film, its main strength is the atmosphere and the gritty, gloomy, downbeat plot. But I don't think - even one minute - that Jean-Pierre Melville would have done such a film. I name Melville because for many movie goers, French crime films lovers, Alain Corneau was shown as the "new Melville". Well, I guess no director on earth can imitate the Stetson hat man from Jenner street studios in Paris. Martin Scorcese's cinema - TAXI DRIVER, MEAN STREETS - could be closer to Alain Corneau's cinema, especially this one, where Anconina shines, as he did several years earlier for TCHAO PANTIN.

Briefly said, this is Alain Corneau's third attempt - after Police Python 357 and Choix Des Armes - to create a Film Noir in the manner of Jean-Pierre Melville. An like in the other two films, his attempt was (more or less) successful. Like his idol, he is very good in selecting the right locations and creating a mood of nightly jeopardy. The greatest difference is his lack of trust in the pictures which often results in unnecessary dialogues. But apart from that, Corneau was the only director who really managed to get close to Melville. And from his three crime movies, this is surely the best one - if you don't think of the first 30 minutes of Police Python and the last 30 minutes of Choix. It would be interesting to know, why this is the one which is practically nowhere to be seen.

PS: As another funny example of German renaming, this one was called Blues Cop.