Le Doulos

Le Doulos aka The Finger Man

D: Jean-Pierre Melville (1963); with Serge Reggiani, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly, Marcel Cuvelier, René Lefevre, Aimé de March. Jean-Pierre Melville is the transition figure between the classic French cinema, American film noir, and the French New Wave. He began directing in the mid-Forties and continued into the Seventies. Although his work has gained some fame in the past two decades, he is still woefully underappreciated. The work itself is wonderful, but Melville was a crucial figure, his work influencing directors on both sides of the Atlantic. His films, at their weakest, are stunningly beautiful, cinematic evocations of light and dark. Forget character, forget plot -- just watch the beauty of the textured filmmaking, the visual unraveling of the film's plot. Fortunately, Melville's best films have plot and character to burn. His masterpiece may be Le Samourai (1967), which is all character. Le Doulos is up there, too, with more plot than a gaggle of Hollywood movies. Imagine the best of Siodmak or Tourneur multiplied by one and a half. Silien (Belmondo) is an informer operating in the dangerous, dark netherworld between criminals and the police. He hooks up with recent ex-con Maurice (Raggiani). Talking any more about the plot would give away too much about this complex, convoluted thriller. Needless to say, women can be wicked, and things aren't always as they seem. Belmondo, as always, is inspired, but Raggiani more than holds his own. This film is something else, and, as with all of Melville's films, worth searching out.