#472: Le Doulos (1962)

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo & Serge Reggiani

You never know who is intended to be the protagonist in this film noir brought to the French New Wave era. The film begins with a murder. Faugel, an ex-convict, kills his old friend Gilbert and buries the jewelry and cash they stole together from a previous job. He then plans a robbery with his accomplice, Rémy, using tools borrowed from Silien, a police informer. When the robbery goes wrong, Faugel is sure Silien is behind the busted operation.

Melville really never lets you know exactly what's going on. Aside from a plot packed with twists and turns, he even dresses the two main characters similarly, oftentimes focusing the camera anywhere but their faces, so you don't even know who you're watching. "This, coupled with a habit that some of them have of straightening their hats before a mirror, perhaps suggests they are interchangeable, playing different games by the same rules." I snubbed that from Ebert, who is on the ball with this idea.

But even Ebert says that he'd give a "shiny new dime" to whoever can explain the film all the way through. This makes me feel a bit better about myself, as I had no idea. I rarely do in film noir, to be honest.

I have a bit of beef on this film. Yeah, the plot (once explained via this fantastic film summary) is impressive. But the style? I'm a bit WTFified. Melville (who changed his name because of his adoration for the author) is obviously obsessed with American culture. The characters are wearing American-style clothing, and they are driving American cars (which barely fit in the Parisian roads). Is that necessary? Why not just make an American movie? Or make this film more authentically French? I just don't understand the need to mix the two.

Also, when people shoot each other in this film, it's ultra fake. C'mon, this film was made 30 years after film noir started hitting it big... so you can at try to up the quality.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from - SURPRISE! - that film summary I mentioned. IMDB had nothin'.)

• Melville was obsessed with men's costuming. While he was completely one-sided on his opinion that all men wearing a gun also need to wear a hat, he didn't care at all what women wore.
• Though the novel was full of underworld slang, Melville decided not to use any in his film.
• In response to accusations that the film is mysogynistic, Melville wrote that the critics are "totally false. the women in my film aren't as ordinary as they seem."
• "Le Doulos" (pronounced doo-LOHS, where the S is pronounced) can be translated as somebody who wears a fedora-like hat called a "doule". Originally, this was what policemen wore, but soon gangster's took on the style as well.

#489: Brick (2005)

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emilie de Ravin, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas & Noah Fleiss

A true film noir using a California high school as the backdrop, Brick can be a huge surprise to the modern audience. Despite the age of all the characters in the plot, this film is not a parody of the genre. It is a film noir through and through.

After Brendan, a loner at his school, receives a cryptic phone call from his ex-girlfriend Emily, he soon finds her body lying at the entrance to a secluded tunnel. With the help of an extremely intelligent student known only as The Brain, Brendan is out to find Emily's killer. Throughout his hunt, he becomes involved with the towns most nefarious drug lord known as The Pin; Kara, the school's biggest drama queen; Laura, the social butterfly; and Brad, the self-proclaimed greatest athlete in the school. When the film unravels itself, you're guaranteed a surprise that'll leave you dumbfounded.

The cinematography of the film, with its odd camera angles and zoomed in shots, are often compared to Donnie Darko. The score by Nathan Johnson is thoroughly a modern jazz, which strengthens the film's ties with the classic film noir. All the actors deserve praise for this film, and many of them have had continued success since, making appearances in today's most popular TV shows such as Lost, Heroes, 24, and Entourage.

I have to admit, I was completely clueless as to what happened by the end of this film. My excuse for this is that I was not expecting this film to be as serious as it is. I've straightened myself out with the plot, and it really is some fantastic writing with great twists along the way. So, I warn you all now - pay attention to this film, because it is not a high school-oriented film.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• The horn signal Brendan instructs Laura to give him (long, short, long, short) is the same as the doorbell signal Sam Spade tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy he'll use in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Brendan's earlier line to Laura, "Now you are dangerous," is taken from the film as well.
• The film makers had filmed a version of the film scene with the playing field all muddy and damaged. When they came back to film more of the scene they discovered that the school had refurbished the field and it was now perfect and bright green. That's why most of the shots in the scene are angled upwards to hide the field from view.
• According to the review in "The New Yorker", this film was edited on a home computer.