Jean-Pierre Melville - Le Doulos (1962)

Based on a novel from the famous 'série noire' crime series, 'Le Duolos' inaugurates the great run of gangster films that were to make Melville the master of the genre. Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as the duplicitous Silien, underworld criminal and police informer, and Sergei Reggiani as the dogged villain Faugel, Melville creates a twilit world of ambiguity and betrayal, in which 'all characters are two-faced, all characters are false'. (-DVD cover)



This was also the film Melville called 'my first real policier', and already the characteristic elements of the French 'noir' are in place : the bleak, downbeat atmosphere, laconic dialogue, perennial themes of male friendship, loyalty and betrayal and always a sense of impending tragedy. Melville's films and 'Le Duolos' in particular, retain their ambiguity, leading to a major 'coup de théatre' at the film's finale. (-DVD cover)



Burglar Maurice Faugel has just finished his sentence. He murders Gilbert Vanovre, a receiver, and steals the loot of a break-in. He is also preparing a house-breaking, and his friend Silien brings him the needed equipment. But Silien is a police informer ... A movie whose "all characters are two-faced, all characters are false", according to director Jean-Pierre Melville. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/plotsummary)



Maurice Faugel has just been released from prison when he kills his friend Gilbert Varnove. Maurice then attempts to commit a robbery. The police appear and he tries to run but the police shoot at him and he is wounded. He looses consciousness and awakes in his friend Jean's apartment. He believes that his friend Silien told the police about his plans because Silien is rumoured to be a police informant. Silien is questioned by the police about the murder of Gilbert and the robbery before the police collect Maurice from a bar where he is reading a newspaper report about his girlfriend, Therese's death. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/plotsummary)



Gangster films rarely manage to surprise their audience with the plot (unless they sacrifice logic as so often in Raymond Chandler's stories), but here we have an exception. This one is entirely logical and entirely surprising; an extraordinary gangster story of trust, betrayal and code of honour. It is impossible to correctly guess the outcome even when you are through 2/3 of the film. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/usercomments)




still as rich in his own style than with his other films. If at times it might not seem as much Melville as usual, it may be because it's based off a book by Pierre Lesou. But Melville still instills his distinctive flair at making old-fashioned crime stories involving criminals with codes of honor, police with some level of respect and intelligence, and a perfection of dead-pan dialog and silences. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/usercomments)



The style of Le Doulos is a sumptuous feast for the eyes and senses. It isn't always fast and it isn't always slow, but when Melville wants a level of suspense he somehow brings it. Like all his other crime films, he's working in a framework akin to the American genre pictures of the late 30's and 40's- tough guys almost always shielding their emotions, kind to most women but not all (there's an interrogation scene by Silien with a woman that is effective, and rather disturbing in just the set-up of the woman), and a kind of fate that is and isn't expected with the characters. One might even try and make naturalistic comparisons with the story; Faugel with his own problems, Silien with his lonely but loyal life to his few friends, the police's professionalism. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/usercomments)



Despite the straightforward attitude of the characters, there is emotion behind the style. Many have said Melville's films are 'cool', very 'cool', or sometimes too 'cold' for their own good. Both could be attributed. But the coolness outranks everything else; Belmondo, by the way, is so cool in this film, so unflinchingly so at times (even if in sometimes a little ineffectual), it makes his performance in Breathless seem amateurish. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/usercomments)



Like all of Melville's films, 'Le Doulos' concerns itself with honour, friendship and betrayal. This topic was close to Melville since he served with the Free French during the resistance. Like some of the great Films-Noir, 'Le Doulos' structure is akin to that of a modern day Greek tragedy where the characters are doomed from the word go and wait for it throughout the film. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/usercomments)



German film director, Volker Schlondorf first worked in films as an assistant director like Le Doulos(1961) for Jean Pierre Melville(1961) (http://imdb.com/title/tt0054821/usercomments)









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