Becker's style is "invisible" -- that is, he never shows off, but like Hawks and Renoir, generally places his camera in locations that are perfectly designed to illuminate the action. Like most great directors, Becker's sense of space is remarkable and architectronic -- you could diagram the places in which the film's events occur. This is particularly true of a bravura gun battle on a remote country road, shot at night, and exquisitely choreographed. The picture's black and white is lustrous and lucid. Becker's direction often resembles Bresson in that he focuses much attention on people performing actions that seem relatively routine and, even, undramatic -- he doesn't cut between spaces and, often, shots are devoted to seemingly inconsequential imagery of people simply traversing spaces. But Becker is supremely confident and when he shows you a space by having someone filmed walking through it, there is always an underlying graphic or thematic basis for this gesture. The film's pacing is peculiar. At the center of the picture, there is a long sequence in which Gabin's Max shows his buddy, Riton, his hide-out in a luxury apartment. The two men eat biscuits with cheese, drink a little brandy, and, then, brush their teeth and go to bed. It's an extended image of almost marital domesticity in the middle of a crime film and one wonders why Becker is lavishing so much attention on shots of people brushing their teeth or Max handing out a towel and pajamas to his buddy. Later, the film will turn upon Max deciding to sacrifice his precious loot, and, even, possibly, his life to save Riton. This narrative would not be comprehensible or have any force without the intimate and domestic sequence between the two men at the heart of the film.
Max is a criminal universally admired in the demi-monde. Although it has not been publicized, Max has stolen 8 bars of solid gold from Orly Airport. He has hidden the gold in cartridge canisters in his expensive white car, a big sedan that he keeps in an underground garage at his luxury apartment hide-out. (He maintains another apartment on the other side of town.) Max is adored by men, who always comp him his drinks and food, and also enormously attractive to women. All of the women shown in the film desire him in one way or another. He is extremely polite, gentlemanly (although he has a tendency toward what would now be called sexual harassment -- but the girls in the movie don't mind and seem to think it's an honor to be groped by him), highly intelligent, always impeccably dressed, and immaculately loyal to his associates. At the start of the film, Max goes to a night club with a showgirl named Lola and his friend, Rinton. Rinton's girlfriend is the very young Jeanne Moreau (Josie). Rinton is possessive and slaps Josie in the car when she snorts some cocaine. In the milieu of this picture, men are constantly slapping women who seem to regard this as a gesture of affection. At the cabaret, Max is consulted about establishing a new dope-dealer for the nightclub -- the place is run by a bespectacled fat man named Pierrot, although Max calls him Fatso. Max has just met a young thug named Marco and he suggests that he take over the dope-trade at the cabaret. As usual, Max's word is law and so Marco gets the nod to run drugs out of the night club. Max and Rinton watch old men dancing with young girls and think that this seems pathetic although Rinton is obviously deeply in love with the cruel and impetuous Josie. (Lola begs Max to go home with her, but he's reached the stage in his life when he prefers to just sleep at night and so he demures.) Max finds Josie in a clutch with Angelo (Lino Ventura) and figures out that Josey is feigning her affection for Rinton. This is a problem because Rinton was Max's collaborator on heist involving the gold and presumably knows where the loot is stashed. Max goes home and finds that he is being tailed by an ambulance. (This is Angelo and his thugs who intend to torture Max and Rinton to find out where the loot is located.) Max escapes
Angelo's henchmen, calls Rinton, and they hide out at his apartment. The next day, Max goes to his uncle, a fence, and tries to unload the gold. There is a key scene in which it's made clear that Max is sleeping with his uncle's teenage girlfriend -- loyalty among men doesn't apply to sexual relations: women are non-entitites in this intensely masculine world and it's probable that the uncle knows that Max is having sex with his girlfriend from time to time -- as Max says, it's best to keep this kind of thing in the family. Max has told Rinton that Josey is betraying him. Rinton is a dim-witted idiot -- he's called a "porcupine head"whatever that means. Max warns Rinton to stay away from Josey but, as soon as Max leaves the apartment, Rinton goes to see Josey and gets captured by Angelo and his henchmen. Max, meanwhile, spends the day with Betty, a socialite with whom he is also having an affair. When Max discovers that Rinton is being held by Angelo, he denounces the man as an idiot and a fool, but, ultimately, decides to try to save his buddy. He goes to Pierrot's nightclub, machine guns are distributed and the big battle on the country road, then, follows. At the end of the movie, Max has lost his loot and Rinton, terribly wounded, dies. Max is with Betty at a restaurant frequented by gangsters. He takes a call and learns that Rinton has died. He, then, goes back and sits with Betty concealing his grief. But, in a final close-up, we see that his eyes are moist and he seems about to cry.
The film is impeccable in every respect, completely believable, and very exciting. There's a scene that exemplifies Becker's style. Max goes into a little bar to use a phone. Apparently, bars doubled as phone booths in Paris in 1954. (The phone is next to the toilets.) Max asks for a 'phone token" but he is rebuffed -- everyone admires Max so much that no one will take his money. He places his call, leaves the bar, and, on the way out, tosses some notes to the bartender. The bartender has poured Max's brandy, but he is in a hurry and doesn't drink it -- the bar-keep then takes a funnel from under the bar, pours the booze back into the bottle and says "I wish all of our customers were like him." This is a tiny sequence, but it exemplifies Becker's fidelity to the truth and contains the very closely observed detail that the bartender keeps a funnel under the bar to pour unused booze back into their bottles.
When John McCain died, Joe Biden said that he regarded McCain as his brother and that if McCain were ever in trouble he would hop the first plane to wherever the trouble was taking place to join him in the fight. This is a style of masculinity that animated men of my father's generation -- the war and immediate post-war male ethos. It's a combination of loyalty that is not blind to the faults of the person to whom one is loyal, plus self-reliance -- you don't ask outsiders to help settle what you should settle yourself. There's a little poignant glimpse of how women fit into this equation. When Max recruits the fat nightclub owner, Pierrot, to assist him in the fight, "Fatso", of course, joins the fray without asking any questions and, in fact, supplies the machine-guns. Fatso's mistress, the madam who keeps the showgirls in line says to Max that Pierrot is all she has and that she "won't have a second chance." Max says he'll bring Pierrot back alive. Throughout the picture, we haven't heard Pierrot say a kind or even civil word to this woman whom he seems to bully mercilessly. But she loves Pierrot and doesn't want him damaged in the brawl.
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