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Le Doulos (1962)
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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:18
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: This complex thriller follows the fatalistic relationship between two men: Maurice, a crook just out of prison and Silien (Belmondo), who may or may not be a Doulos (a kind of high-class informer).... This complex thriller follows the fatalistic relationship between two men: Maurice, a crook just out of prison and Silien (Belmondo), who may or may not be a Doulos (a kind of high-class informer). Maurice, wasting no time, immediately begins to put himself on the wrong side of the law, setting up a number of robberies with the help of Silien, whom he begins to suspect is a police informer. A spellbinding New Wave noir from director Jean-Pierre Melville (LE SAMOURAI). [More]
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Michel Piccoli, Jean Desailly
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Michel Piccoli, Jean Desailly, Fabienne Dali, Rene Lefevre
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Producer: Carlo Ponti, Georges De Beauregard
Screenwriter: Jean-Pierre Melville
Composer: Paul Misraki
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Release:
Oct 7, 2008
Reviews for Le Doulos
Le Doulos roots itself in traditional noir themes of providence, of loyalty and betrayal, of male codes of honor, and ultimately of man's inability to escape his lot in life.
The macho criminal underworld of French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville has a nasty, nearly misogynistic edge here...
As good as Melville's setups are, the joys of the movie keep returning to Belmondo, then and now the king of effortless cool.
Even if you're not a fan of this sort of narrative trickery, it must be said that Le Doulos is simply a hell of a thriller ...
The movie is a tough, stylish, deliciously complex labyrinth of underworld double-crosses that, like most of the other Melville noirs, ultimately celebrates honor among thieves.
Even back in 1962, Melville made the usual suspects feel new by wrapping them in gorgeous desolation.
A slippery, gripping cops-and-robbers thriller, full of twists and turns and ending with a tragicomic shootout you'll never forget.
Melville is a mythmaker. His characters are archetypes of the cinema, specifically American cinema, though his outlook is unmistakably French, tinged with romanticism.
Mr. Belmondo, as usual, maintains a sinister air, but it has no particular meaning, beyond showing that a crook is a crook is a crook.
Melville's complete absorption of American crime movies is on full display in Le Doulos, but the film never feels like a French version of an American movie.
It's a dark post-noir thriller enhanced by superb performances and sparkling black and white cinematography.
Another classic entry in the Melville Gallic noir canon, immaculately realised and bolstered by the strong presence of Belmondo.
Jean-Pierre Melville's existentialized gangster films are one of the glories of the French cinema, American forms played out with European self-consciousness.
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