Bob le flambeur (1956)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

Film Review

It was the success of Jacques Becker's Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) and Jules Dassin's Du rififi chez les hommes (1955) which brought a new impetus to the old-fashioned gangster film and established the policier as one of the major genres of French cinema in the mid-1950s. The popularity of such films was in part down to the pro-American sentiment that had taken hold of France in the years following the Liberation.  The United States was seen as a model of modernity and its values and culture were eagerly embraced by a nation that was keen to put its recent past behind it.  How else can we account for the success of Eddie Constantine and his low-grade American-style potboilers - La Môme vert-de-gris (1953), Cet homme est dangereux (1953), etc. - which French cinema audiences lapped up like starving puppies?   One particular devotee of American culture was the independent filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville - the fact that he adopted the surname Melville (after the author of Moby Dick) testifies to the extent of his amour fou for all things made in the USA.  Melville already had three features under his belt by the time he came to make his first foray into le Milieu (the world of organised crime).  Bob le Flambeur would be nothing less than a full-blown homage to the American gangster heist movie, but one with a distinctly Gallic feel, owing to its location in Paris's shady Pigalle district and the playboy's home-from-home, Deauville.

The first of Melville's seductively stylish gangster films, Bob le flambeur introduces themes that the director world return to time and again in his subsequent work.  These include: the notion of honour amongst thieves, the futility of effort (a metaphor for man's inability to cheat death) and the lack of clear moral boundaries between the lawmakers and law-breakers.  Far from being a mere imitation of their American counterparts, Melville's gangster films are distinctive works of cinema art in their own right and explore the complexities of existence and relationships with a discerning eye and a uniquely cynical temperament.  What most characterises the heroes of Melville's films is their propensity for failure.  They may be brave, intelligent and resolute, but success will always elude them.  It is as if they are automata or pieces on a chessboard, guided by an unseen hand to perform an intricate dance that leads inevitably to disaster.  Conventional notions of good and evil are irrelevant in Melville's cold male-dominated universe.  What matters is that whoever you are - crook or cop - you adhere to the moral code you have chosen.  The lessons that Jean-Pierre Melville had learned whilst working for the French Resistance during WWII would stay with him and impinge massively on his cinema.  Honneur et fidélité was as much Melville's watchword as it was the Foreign Legion's.

In writing the screenplay, Melville opted to work with one of France's best-known crime writers, Auguste Le Breton.  The latter's firsthand familiarity with the Parisian underworld allowed him to bring a chilling authenticity to his novels, many of which have been adapted for cinema, including Du rififi chez les hommes and Le Clan des Siciliens.  For the lead role, Melville cast Roger Duchesne, his first screen role in over a decade.  Duchesne had been a prolific supporting actor in the 1930s but his career was derailed in the mid-1940s after he was accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the Occupation.  With his implacable features, steely eyes and elegant bearing, Duchesne proved to be an inspired casting choice and served as the template for the main protagonists of Melville's subsequent gangster films, notably the sinisterly taciturn Jef Costello (played to perfection by Alain Delon) in Le Samourai (1967).

Although Bob le Flambeur was not a great commercial success on its first release, it was favourably reviewed by some critics (including a young firebrand named Claude Chabrol) and would have an immense impact on French cinema in the decade that followed.  Several directors of the French New Wave were greatly in awe of Melville and sought his advice when making their first films.  Today, Bob le Flambeur is not only rated an important example of French film noir (remade as The Good Thief in 2002 by the Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan), it is also considered an essential precursor to the French New Wave, establishing an aesthetic and a way of filmmaking that a new generation of filmmaker was eager to embrace.  Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature À bout de souffle (1960) owes much to this film - not only did Godard include several overt references to it, he also gave Melville a role in the film, acknowledging the debt that the Nouvelle Vague owed to  the director of Bob le flambeur.

A fiercely independent filmmaker, Jean-Pierre Melville revelled in his maverick status, but the downside was he often found it extremely difficult to finance his films.  Bob le Flambeur was made on a particularly tight budget, so tight in fact that Melville rarely had enough money to shoot for more than a few days at a time.  Most of the two years he committed to making the film were spent trying to scrape together enough ready cash so he could pay his cast and crew their paltry fee.  It was the lack of resources and Melville's complete control over every aspect of the production that earned him the reputation of the auteur godfather and allowed him to originate a filmmaking approach that would radically and irreversibly alter the character of French cinema by the end of the decade.

Another instrumental player in this cinematic upheaval was Melville's cinematographer of choice, Henri Decaë, who had previously collaborated with Melville on Le Silence de la Mer (1949) and Les Enfants terribles (1950).  Decaë's use of natural lighting and the handheld camera were highly innovative at the time and are what give Bob le flambeur its elegant modernity and near-documentary realism.  It is no accident that Decaë's services would be highly sought after by the emerging directors of the French New Wave.  François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Louis Malle all chose Decaë to photograph their first features - Les 400 coups (1959), Le Beau Serge (1958) and Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) - thereby bringing a distinctive yet consistent style to the early films of the Nouvelle Vague.  On Bob le flambeur, Decaë (guided by Melville) took his inspiration from American film noir - particularly recent examples such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950).  This is perhaps most evident in the jazz-scored neon-lit exterior sequences, which reek of ill-gotten affluence and sordid vice.  If it weren't for the recognisable Parisian landmarks and the fact that everyone speaks French, you could easily convince yourself that Bob le flambeur is a pukka American film noir - and a very respectable one at that.

Film Synopsis

Once a renowned criminal, Bob Montagne now appears to be a reformed character, content to fritter away his time and his money in the casinos and gambling rooms of the shadier districts of Paris.  Bob is not one to let his heart rule his head but when he sees a young woman named Anne down on her luck he takes her under his wing, hoping to steer her away from a life of prostitution.  Bob is not unduly concerned when his protégée begins a love affair with Paulo, one of his young associates.  His main worry is his lack of money.  Having gambled away his entire fortune, his thoughts turn to crime once more.  When he learns that the safe of the casino at Deauville contains 800 million francs, Bob cannot resist planning one last great robbery.  Despite meticulous preparations, the heist does not go quite as Bob had planned, thanks to Paulo's loose tongue and an unexpected change of luck at the roulette wheel...