Taking part in a Film Noir Challenge on ICM,I felt it was a perfect time to watch a "new" Noir with my favourite movie star: Michele Mercier. Checking her credits one by one, I was thrilled to spot a review by fellow IMDber dbdumonteil for a Mercier Noir I've never heard of before. This led to me becoming corrupt.
View on the film:
The lone figure walking into the final shot, the beautiful Michele Mercier gives a outstanding, expressive turn as Madeleine, whose frustrations over her husband Clavet's continuing gamble in building closer ties in the underworld, are kicked by Mercier with a Femme Falale feisty edge. Getting the planned drug deal on track with the skill of pros who have been in this game for years, the ensemble cast give incredible hard-nose Noir loner turns, from co-writer Jose Giovanni's lingering air of mystery as Moreau, to Michel Auclair's enthusiastic youthfulness of Clavet.
Breaking the rails which bonded them by smearing blood on the tracks, Jean Rochefort draws the complexities building in Jabeke's betrayal of his fellow gang members, with the wise move of giving him limited dialogue, allowing Rochefort to facial express the weight on Jabeke's shoulders over his silencing of those who get close to uncovering his betrayal.
Displaying the same meticulous eye later appearing in his La piscine (1969-also reviewed) co-writer/(with Jose Giovanni and Claude Sautet) director Jacques Deray & cinematographer Claude "Nephew of Jean" Renoir compose this symphony of a Noir massacre with pristine stylisation, loading a atmosphere of dread in refine long-shots going down the carriages filled with Jabeke's betrayals. Punching out when Jabeke's backstabbing risks being found out, Deray hits with shards of whip-pans coming out of low shadows to the blunt, blast force of Jabeke's murders.
Featuring not one, but three film makers, the adaptation of Alain Reynaud-Fourton's story Les Mystifies by Deray/Giovanni and Sautet thrillingly binds the bond of these five Noir thugs with superb, measured dialogue on the years of trust and friendship which leads to them doing the drug deal as a group. Shattering all trusts with Jabeke's betrayal, the writers magnificently sink Jabeke deeper into Noir waters each time he tries to widen the net by killing suspecting former friends, with each murder getting Jabeke closer to hearing the final notes of a massacre symphony.
View on the film:
The lone figure walking into the final shot, the beautiful Michele Mercier gives a outstanding, expressive turn as Madeleine, whose frustrations over her husband Clavet's continuing gamble in building closer ties in the underworld, are kicked by Mercier with a Femme Falale feisty edge. Getting the planned drug deal on track with the skill of pros who have been in this game for years, the ensemble cast give incredible hard-nose Noir loner turns, from co-writer Jose Giovanni's lingering air of mystery as Moreau, to Michel Auclair's enthusiastic youthfulness of Clavet.
Breaking the rails which bonded them by smearing blood on the tracks, Jean Rochefort draws the complexities building in Jabeke's betrayal of his fellow gang members, with the wise move of giving him limited dialogue, allowing Rochefort to facial express the weight on Jabeke's shoulders over his silencing of those who get close to uncovering his betrayal.
Displaying the same meticulous eye later appearing in his La piscine (1969-also reviewed) co-writer/(with Jose Giovanni and Claude Sautet) director Jacques Deray & cinematographer Claude "Nephew of Jean" Renoir compose this symphony of a Noir massacre with pristine stylisation, loading a atmosphere of dread in refine long-shots going down the carriages filled with Jabeke's betrayals. Punching out when Jabeke's backstabbing risks being found out, Deray hits with shards of whip-pans coming out of low shadows to the blunt, blast force of Jabeke's murders.
Featuring not one, but three film makers, the adaptation of Alain Reynaud-Fourton's story Les Mystifies by Deray/Giovanni and Sautet thrillingly binds the bond of these five Noir thugs with superb, measured dialogue on the years of trust and friendship which leads to them doing the drug deal as a group. Shattering all trusts with Jabeke's betrayal, the writers magnificently sink Jabeke deeper into Noir waters each time he tries to widen the net by killing suspecting former friends, with each murder getting Jabeke closer to hearing the final notes of a massacre symphony.