I won't add much more to what have already said the other users. Yes, this is here a true masterpiece, directed by the greatest french directors ever. A director who was very influenced by the US crime films world. Keep in mind that Melville watched ODDS AGAINST TOMORROM more than eighty times in his life. And the sequence - in LE DEUXIEME Soufflé - where the four gangsters wait for the armored truck robbery, on the desert road, this very sequence is directly a homage to the nearly same scene, in the Robert Wises' film, where the three robbers - Ryan, Belafonte and Begley - wait before the heist.
Some scenes here are also some repetitions for further Melville's films. Such as this sequence where Denis Manuel, one of the four hoodlums, is waiting with his long range rifle to hit the police motor cyclist; note that he takes the rifle sighting lense off. You'll have the very same scene, later in LE CERCLE ROUGE, when Yves Montand makes the same thing during the jewelry store heist.
Or the other sequence, where Denis Manuel - Antoine's character - walks into the room where he knows he will probably have to fight against his enemy; Manuel hides a gun somewhere; and a couple of minutes later another character comes into the room, after Manuel's departure, searches and finds the famous gun, hidden just before. THAT'S THE REAL SUSPENSE. Because the audience wonders how the hell things are going to be after all this.
Well, you'll find the same kind of editing, in LE SAMOURAÏ. Cops enter Alain Delon's flat, hide some bugs in order to spy him...And also a couple of minutes later, when Delon comes back to his room...
Know what I am driving at?
That the Melville's touch. All his greatness, that no one, after his death, has ever brought to us again.
Yes, yes, yes, I am a great Melville's fan. There is not a day in my f...life where I don't suffer from his death, forty one years ago. We missed so many things.
Such a pain for all of us.
Some scenes here are also some repetitions for further Melville's films. Such as this sequence where Denis Manuel, one of the four hoodlums, is waiting with his long range rifle to hit the police motor cyclist; note that he takes the rifle sighting lense off. You'll have the very same scene, later in LE CERCLE ROUGE, when Yves Montand makes the same thing during the jewelry store heist.
Or the other sequence, where Denis Manuel - Antoine's character - walks into the room where he knows he will probably have to fight against his enemy; Manuel hides a gun somewhere; and a couple of minutes later another character comes into the room, after Manuel's departure, searches and finds the famous gun, hidden just before. THAT'S THE REAL SUSPENSE. Because the audience wonders how the hell things are going to be after all this.
Well, you'll find the same kind of editing, in LE SAMOURAÏ. Cops enter Alain Delon's flat, hide some bugs in order to spy him...And also a couple of minutes later, when Delon comes back to his room...
Know what I am driving at?
That the Melville's touch. All his greatness, that no one, after his death, has ever brought to us again.
Yes, yes, yes, I am a great Melville's fan. There is not a day in my f...life where I don't suffer from his death, forty one years ago. We missed so many things.
Such a pain for all of us.