beggars-banquet

Gabin once again takes the role of the confident man, Monsieur Max, who keeps many friends and as many girlfriends. I didn't know Dary, and he does a pretty good job of playing Riton, the less successful and probably partially jealous friend of Max. Of course Riton will royally screw up by boasting his heist to his girlfriend, so that she can tell her own lover that Riton and Max have 96kg of pure gold bars.

The use of argot was very enjoyable, and so was the high number of scenes where these gangsters are casually drinking. It might have lacked of climax, but then is it really important? In the same league as Rififi chez des hommes. The theme song was surprisingly memorable. Many slower scenes (the dance scene, teethbrushing scene ("tu peux te laver les crochets")) added a nice touch to an overall very pleasant cinematic experience.

It goes like this...

Find the bad guys, fight them, kill them and then discover a hint about the next exotic location. Repeat for about four or five times. Then have semi-tangled situation in the end where everything reveals its true nature, but win anyway. Final curtain, with the surfy guitar theme.

Actors weren't bad, and Waltz might even become memorable. Hopefully he could make a comeback. But Craig.. well it's getting too much, the whole character is just like the movie itself: always the same, no subtlety. But I must say he does wear some fine clothes (the casual outfit when he leaves the train is fantastic) Photography is also mostly good, but too restrained for my liking (although the Austrian alps were great. Urban scenes are usually OK, except for Mexico which I found completely boring. And why does the whole building blows up?

So quite an effective form, but really the substance and the story of the movie are disappointing.

IMDb synopsis says that Franck Poupart, played by Patrick Dewaere, is 'slightly neurotic'. It's actually much worse, Poupart is a complete maniac, left unsupervised in a jungle of HLM, terrains vagues, poverty and filth. He even readily mumbles to himself that he's psychotic.

I heard of Série noire when looking up Dewaere bio on wikipedia. It was mentioned how physically hard the filming was on the actors, and on Dewaere in particular. The characters keep fighting and shouting at each other, and they won't stop until they're completely exhausted or drunk. Except of course for Blier, who plays the soft spoken treacherous coward. I found this movie very close in spirit to Zola who would place weak personalities in a closed environment to sadistically observe what happens. Everyone is to blame for what happens, everyone is guilty.

This is a true chef d'œuvre, but a disturbing one, the kind of movie you'll be thinking of for days to come. It's all about madness, and you'll wonder how far you are from falling into it.