Growing up in the bi-cultural city of Montreal, I spent my youthful years in Francophone coffee houses & bistros. I suppose it's just something in the sound of the language, but somehow French poetry always seems just that much more poetic, chanson just that much more lyrical. One of the things that fascinated me most about French culture was the easy camaraderie between artists & criminals that stretches back thru the novels of Francis Carco in the '20s, the poetry of Rimbaud & Verlaine in the 1800s, all the way back to François Villon, the 15th-century brigand poet.
As a college student in the blandly monolingual city of Toronto in the '70s, I spent a lot of time in the many cheap repertory cinemas there & got a good introduction to French film. Several trips to France since then have dispelled whatever lingering romantic notions I cherished of that country, yet the France of Louis Malle, Claude Lelouch, François Truffaut, Bertrand Blier, even Eric Rohmer - but above all Lelouch - still sustain the romantic illusion. The high degree of urbane sophistication & civility they portray is beguiling, whether it exists or not.
A Man and a Woman, the film that made Lelouch's reputation, was a flat-out romance. No action at all & little plot to speak of, it was all about mood & how love lifts us out of the ordinary.
Le Voyou was all plot & the protagonist, Simon le Suisse, leaves behind the woman he loved, tho he acquires her successor with elegant ease. There's little enough romance here tho; Simon lives by his wits, staying just one jump ahead of the law. What romance there is revolves around the loyalty of comrades, male & female, & the betrayal of trust is the ultimate sin.
Lino Ventura, on the other hand, as an unrelated Simon in La Bonne Année, is incurably romantic. While casing a supposedly "incassable" (unbreakable) jewelry store in Nice, he meets & falls in love with Françoise, who runs a neighboring antique shop. She & her current lover run with a snooty intellectual set where Simon doesn't fit in. When asked how he chooses a movie without reading reviews, he answers - looking straight at Françoise - that he chooses a movie as he would a woman, "en prennant des risques" (by taking chances).
The heist - a beautifully crafted caper "psychologique", as Simon insists on calling it - goes awry thru one little detail, something not even overlooked but simply unforeseeable. His partner Charlot (Charles Gérard) gets away with the loot, but Simon is caught & does 6 years hard time. We learn all this in a long colorful flashback after we first see him released from prison, supposedly as part of a special Christmas pardon, but actually in hopes the police can track him to his accomplice & recover the loot.
Simon cleverly eludes the cops & makes his way back to his old apartment in Paris, where Françoise has moved in to wait for his release. What he doesn't realize, & finds out the hard way, is that she has taken a live-in lover to while away the time.
The plot unrolls with great finesse thru Lelouch's signature use of flashback - & the striking contrast between the bleak monochrome of Simon's present & the vivid color of 6 years ago in Nice is an especially brilliant touch - but the real focus is his bewildered state of mind after 6 lost years in prison as he contemplates the changes those pitiless years have wrought in his absence. Ventura wears his sad shopworn face largely immobile, yet manages to convey an extensive range of feeling thru just his eyes or the occasional twitch of a corner of his mouth. His nuanced performance combines with Lelouch's storytelling genius to create what is perhaps my favorite French film ever.
Simon looks up the loyal Charlot, who's safeguarded Simon's share of the loot all these years, & makes his plans to get out of the country while the getting's good. Yet he can't bring himself to leave without making one last stab at reconnecting with Françoise because, as he'd told her prior to his arrest, a man is someone "qui va jusque au bout" (someone who goes all the way).
As a college student in the blandly monolingual city of Toronto in the '70s, I spent a lot of time in the many cheap repertory cinemas there & got a good introduction to French film. Several trips to France since then have dispelled whatever lingering romantic notions I cherished of that country, yet the France of Louis Malle, Claude Lelouch, François Truffaut, Bertrand Blier, even Eric Rohmer - but above all Lelouch - still sustain the romantic illusion. The high degree of urbane sophistication & civility they portray is beguiling, whether it exists or not.
A Man and a Woman, the film that made Lelouch's reputation, was a flat-out romance. No action at all & little plot to speak of, it was all about mood & how love lifts us out of the ordinary.
Le Voyou was all plot & the protagonist, Simon le Suisse, leaves behind the woman he loved, tho he acquires her successor with elegant ease. There's little enough romance here tho; Simon lives by his wits, staying just one jump ahead of the law. What romance there is revolves around the loyalty of comrades, male & female, & the betrayal of trust is the ultimate sin.
Lino Ventura, on the other hand, as an unrelated Simon in La Bonne Année, is incurably romantic. While casing a supposedly "incassable" (unbreakable) jewelry store in Nice, he meets & falls in love with Françoise, who runs a neighboring antique shop. She & her current lover run with a snooty intellectual set where Simon doesn't fit in. When asked how he chooses a movie without reading reviews, he answers - looking straight at Françoise - that he chooses a movie as he would a woman, "en prennant des risques" (by taking chances).
The heist - a beautifully crafted caper "psychologique", as Simon insists on calling it - goes awry thru one little detail, something not even overlooked but simply unforeseeable. His partner Charlot (Charles Gérard) gets away with the loot, but Simon is caught & does 6 years hard time. We learn all this in a long colorful flashback after we first see him released from prison, supposedly as part of a special Christmas pardon, but actually in hopes the police can track him to his accomplice & recover the loot.
Simon cleverly eludes the cops & makes his way back to his old apartment in Paris, where Françoise has moved in to wait for his release. What he doesn't realize, & finds out the hard way, is that she has taken a live-in lover to while away the time.
The plot unrolls with great finesse thru Lelouch's signature use of flashback - & the striking contrast between the bleak monochrome of Simon's present & the vivid color of 6 years ago in Nice is an especially brilliant touch - but the real focus is his bewildered state of mind after 6 lost years in prison as he contemplates the changes those pitiless years have wrought in his absence. Ventura wears his sad shopworn face largely immobile, yet manages to convey an extensive range of feeling thru just his eyes or the occasional twitch of a corner of his mouth. His nuanced performance combines with Lelouch's storytelling genius to create what is perhaps my favorite French film ever.
Simon looks up the loyal Charlot, who's safeguarded Simon's share of the loot all these years, & makes his plans to get out of the country while the getting's good. Yet he can't bring himself to leave without making one last stab at reconnecting with Françoise because, as he'd told her prior to his arrest, a man is someone "qui va jusque au bout" (someone who goes all the way).