The Frame

This was part of my attempt to move beyond the New Wave proper and into some of the (non-American) directors who influenced it. Jean-Pierre Melville’s crime films are New Wavish in their appropriation of American crime/gangster genre films, but they precede the films of Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, and Chabrol by a half-decade or so. (Godard actually references this film in Breathless, one of the characters suggesting that “Bob le flambeur” would help if he weren’t in prison.) Bob is a former con-man whose vices are now mostly confined to gambling; however, when he’s faced with the opportunity to heist a casino, he decides to pull this one last job. The interplay between Bob’s criminal dealings and his very ethical, humanist, and moral character gives the film a depth that a lot of crime films don’t necessarily have. I didn’t love it as much as I do Godard and Truffaut (the pacing doesn’t suit me as well), but I definitely want to revisit it in a few years and see how a more mature me sees it.
Well Above Average