.jeri.

Yes, I stepped away from documentaries for a moment or two to watch some different movies! I think it was a nice break. This time, I watched a movie I have heard about for years but never gotten around to until now: Bob le flambeur (Bob the gambler), directed by Melville. This movie has been cited as an influence on the filmmakers of the French new wave, but I'm so little versed in my knowledge of this genre that I'll not make any foolish commentary on that aspect of the movie.

This one threw me for a loop based on the description on the envelope from Netflix, which referenced that Bob was an out of luck gambler with a heart for street kids. I thought "kids" was literal and kept waiting for the street urchins to show up and soften his heart, but the kids in this movie were more like wayward twenty-somethings. Bob was once a big-time criminal and got caught in a heist and went to prison for quite some time. He has lived a straight life for the most part since then, and as he gets older, he seems to be a little nostalgic for his glory days (and being low on cash made a difference too). So, when he hears of a safe that holds an enormous amount of money on a specific date, he decides to round up a team of men to plan his last big heist.

The tone of the movie isn't a hopeful one, and it seems that between the bleak look at Pigale in contrast with Sacre Coeur. Pigale was the reality of Bob's world, and nothing good can come out of it. Though Bob helps young people, his benevolence isn't rewarded with good in return, and his heist is destined for a bleak ending. This becomes even more apparent when the movie even stops to show how Bob envisions the perfect heist. In it, the streets and hallways are empty, and everything works like a charm.

The movie is steady, well directed, and full of interesting people, if they were able to be given a little more chance to shine as real characters instead of just going through the motions. It's a heist movie, and everyone plays their part capably. Bob is the most interesting, though, because we actually know what he has to lose. He is friends with the local law enforcement, who warn him not to get in trouble, because both of them know that at his age, Bob probably wouldn't be able to handle going back to prison.

I liked the movie overall, although it does feel a little bit empty. But then again, what French movie from that time period doesn't? I don't know if the French had ambitions to counter any impressions the rest of the world may have gotten of them as passionate people, but most of the French movies from the 50s and 60s I have seen have only revealed a few passionate people - the directors themselves, and not their subjects. Everyone is calm and cool, and I suppose that's something we can appreciate as well. Bob certainly is cool, especially when he finally has a bit of luck towards the end of the movie.... right before the actual end of the movie.