WATCH NOW
In 2017, BFI Southbank hosted a screening of his films, due to it being a century since French director Jean-Pierre Melville’s birth. The film made by him in 1962 was also released in the region. The works of Melville are distinct due to his passion for American cinema which led to him creating a series of individual underworld thrillers. The three films he created with Alain Delon starting off with Le Samourai in 1967 were at the top of the mountain with respect to what they achieved. Hollywood film noir is always rooted in fiction, but this time, it drew on existentialism which gave it a French flavor. But, the reality is that they could be marketed as thrillers. So, they reached the UK in dubbed versions. Alongside them, for Le Doulos, which foreshadowed them, I’m, as far as I know, deprived of a release here, despite Jean-Paul Belmondo being present.
As the written statement tells us at the beginning, the term ‘doulos’ in French means a hat, but to those in the know, it is a word that suggests a police informer. This later meaning is immediately rendered relevant in the context of a robbery committed by an ex-convict, Maurice, who is interrupted by the police (an ex-con does a robbery and the police enter). Serge Reggiani (admirably cast) plays an ex-convict named Maurice. The inspector that eventually arrived, then got shot, had been associated with a friend of Maurice, and a fellow criminal, Silien (Belmondo’s role). Hence we suspect it was him who informed the policeman. In this first account, this story based on a novel by Pierre Lesou, the reader’s intrigue remains piqued. The documentary footage of the movie suggests amicability, but it transforms into violent hostility instead. The world of Le Doulos is one that posits the main question of the possibility of the existence of a person who can be fully trusted.
In Melville’s later work, albeit with a very muted palette, color would add to the tone, whereas in this case, Nicolas Hayer has so delicately captured the images that the film would lose its character without the black and white. As Paul Misraki’s music score corroborates, this is very much a film of its period, and that’s so in a good way even if it does mean that it is a man’s world which is represented with women looking like subordinate figures. On the other hand, Belmondo and Reggiani, who are properly named and cast in opposition, are the ones doing the workload in the film; however, the setting up of the scenes of the film seems to be the correct term to use here and it is splendid. Perhaps, picking a cue from Jules Dassin whose Rififi is said to have come out in 1955, Melville knows how to exploit quietness and, here unlike a lot of American noir which has equally intricate plot turns, the story is much more competently told through images rather than dialogue. Le Doulos reminds us of another era when Melville willingly incorporated elements of his college self into his cinema, but the way Michel Piccoli is billed but only given a minor part, while Bertrand Tavernier is credited merely as the film’s publicist is a treat.
To watch more movies like Le Doulos (1962) visit 123movies
Also Watch for more movies like: Le Doulos (1962)
