Serge Reggiani

Le Doulos

by
Jean-Paul Belmondo

Now considered a classic by the likes of Scorsese and Tarantino, Le Doulos got a harder ride when it came out in 1962. “Talkative and tiresome,” the New York Times called it. Maybe I caught it on a bad day, but I’m inclined to agree. When it comes to Jean-Pierre Melville, give me Le Samouraï, Army of Shadows or Un Flic any day. Only a fool would dismiss the film though, which is packed full of good things and is Melville to the end of its filmic digits. It’s all about masculine codes, in other words, or more specifically the breaking of them. Who among a gang of crooks is the snitch (The … Read more

Manon

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Manon and Desgrieux on the run

Manon isn’t Henri-Georges Clouzot’s best film by a long stretch but it is a great example of how good he was at what he did. A richly detailed story about an amoral woman and the man she falls for, its interesting personal angle is that Clouzot is possibly using it to examine his own behaviour during wartime. The story is an updating of Manon Lescaut, by Abbé Prévost, a story familiar to most French people, who would also be familiar with the other “Manon” – Manon des Sources (which has also been turned into a film several times). Not to be confused. Prévost’s story remains popular because there’s sex and scandal aplenty in … Read more

Casque d’Or

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Manda and Marie aka Casque d'Or

Jacques Becker’s Casque d’Or perfectly illustrates why old-school Becker was held in such high regard by the tyros of France’s New Wave, who generally dismissed all French moviemakers before themselves as “vile” and “grotesque”. Becker was one of a very select band (including Jean Renoir and Jacques Tati) who escaped unscathed and with reputations intact, if not enhanced. Made in 1952, the antediluvian era if you were Truffaut or Godard, Becker’s story concerns itself with Marie (Simone Signoret), a whore with a heart of gold, who winds up caught between two men – ex-con carpenter Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani) and local crime boss Félix Leca (Claude Dauphin), a threeway that will eventually end … Read more