My second Melville-film, and alowly I feel love growing between us. The settings, the staging of movement, looks, camera and tension building up in most of the scenes, are impressive. Alain Delon is good (as the rest), and Catherine Deneuve was a real princess 40 years ago, apparently! What it lacks, is more detailed storytelling. The police's work WILL eventually be very easy if the director doesn't bother to explain how the thief was caught. Nuf' said.

Feels like Melville just going through the motions.

the helicopter scene rather sucks

70.000

Melville's shallow imitation of Melville. Really lacks the depth of his other work. You don't get to know nearly enough of the characters to care for anything playing out, but the movie constantly insists that you should. Anyways, the trademark Melville noir style is intact and still potent enough to carry you through the movie. The acting is really decent, especially Delon does well with the little he has to work with.

Melville's last and probably weakest film. Some goofy, sloppy editing (closeups CLOSEUPS) and some strange pacing are to blame, in addition to a very weak special effects scene involving a model train and helicopter. However, the film has a cool air about it, which is aided by a washed out color scheme that highlights all the blues - blue phones, blue skies, blue cars, blue trains, blue suits, etc. Looks wonderful. Not a total failure.

Stone cold. All of Melville's later films boasted an icy detachment, but here it's almost staggering. The entire thing is shot through blue filters, and the dialog is even more sparse than in Le Samourai. The film's plot relies on the circumstantial, and both the police and criminals think they're always one step ahead of each other. A nice, but all too early farewell from a stand-out director.

A bank robber is wounded at the end of a heist and the others in the gang must decide what to do.