Doulos, Le
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Year Released: 1962
Rating: 2.5
According to Melville, I guess there is a kind of honor among thieves: fresh-out-of-the-hoosegow Serge Reggiani, never one to quit, tries another robbery but gets caught by the fuzz - he thinks it's trench coat-clad Jean-Paul Belmondo, but Belmondo's character is too complicated to be 'just' a snitch. This one is 100% style, with the outfits and lighting and dank on-location shooting, but with a script that's completely jumbled: the film stops dead at one point so Belmondo's character can go back and explain what happened previously from his perspective, making way for a seemingly suicidal (and frankly baffling) third act. Speaking of being doomed, that's precisely what to expect if you're a female character in a Melville picture: do you want to be tied to the radiator and beaten (after being told to make a sandwich) or driven off a cliff? Or both? To be fair, the boys don't have it much better, and the police generally prevail.
