Film Review
After a promising start to his career as a film director, Robert
Hossein hastily came a cropper as soon as he started to imitate the
French New Wave directors. No film shows this inglorious attempt
to clamber aboard the Nouvelle Vague bandwagon more clearly than
Les Scélérats, a film
that is almost completely crushed by its self-conscious
pretensions. The sad thing is that the film is based on a
respectable novel by Frédéric Dard and Hossein had
previously adapted a number of other works by Dard with some success
-
Les Salauds vont en enfer
(1956) and
Toi, le venin (1958) are
certainly well worth seeing. By casting himself in the lead role
as an American, Hossein does himself no favours and his creepily wooden
presence makes the flaws in his over-laboured mise-en-scène all
the more apparent. Michèle Morgan's performance is not
much better, although her strained histrionics are preferable to the
totally stilted contributions from the other three principals, Olivier
Hussenot, Jacqueline Morane and Perrette Pradier. Jacques Robin's
noir-like cinematography does at least bring a touch of poetry to the
proceedings, but saddled with a weak script and surfeit of
directorial narcissism (to say nothing of the muzak-like soundtrack,
which soon becomes unbearable),
Les
Scélérats is a very difficult film to like.
© James Travers, Willems Henri 2014
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Next Robert Hossein film:
Le Goût de la violence (1961)
Film Synopsis
Louise Martin lives with her parents and is engaged as a maid by Jess
Rooland, a rich American who lives in a fancy apartment on the other
side of the street. He is a nostalgic and mysterious man who is
married to Thelma, a depressive alcoholic. Louise cannot
understand why Thelma repeatedly calls her husband a murderer. In
truth, Thelma blames Jess for the death of their son, who was killed
in a road accident a few years before. Louise has much to
discover about Jess, including her own feelings for him...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.