User Reviews

In Milan, the gangster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) is sentenced to death "In absentia" and decides to return to France. Abel is a family man with wife Thérèse Davos (Simone France) and two sons, and his partner Raymond Naldi (Stan Krol) helps Abel and his family to flee to Nice. However Thérèse and Raymond are killed by the police and Abel uses his former friends in Paris to help him to go to Paris with his sons. They hire the driver Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to bring Abel and his kids to Paris in an ambulance. Along their journey, Eric helps the aspirant actress Liliane (Sandra Milo) on the road and she also goes to Paris in the ambulance. But soon Abel learns that he is alone and his friends when he was powerful will not help him and he counts only with the support of Eric. What will happen to him?

"Classe tous risques" is a great film-noir with the story of the last days of a gangster. The plot shows that there is no code of honor or friendship after the fall of a powerful gangster. All his former friends do not help him when he needs. The conclusion is adequate for the whole situation. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil):"Como Fera Encurralada" ("Like Trapped Beast")

"Classes tous risques" is one of the best "gangsters" films noirs France has ever produced.Perfect cast :Lino Ventura,a young Jean -Paul Belmondo (who made "a bout de souffle",Godard's thing, the same year),Marcel Dalio and a fine supporting cast ;brilliant script by José Giovanni -who also wrote "le trou" Becker's masterpièce the same year!What a year for him!;wonderful black and white cinematography by Ghislain Cloquet.And taut action,first-class directing by Claude Sautet,who surpasses Jean-Pierre Melville .Whereas the latter films gangsters movie with metaphysical pretensions,which sometimes lasts more than two hours,Claude Sautet directs men of flesh and blood,and the presence of the two children adds moments of extraordinary poignancy which Melville has never been able to generate .And Sautet avoids pathos,excessive sentimentality:the last time Ventura sees his children,coming down in the metro (subway)is a peak of restrained emotion.

Ventura portrays a gangster whose die is cast when the movie begins.He thinks that he can rely on his former acquaintances ,but they are all cowards -we are far from manly friendship dear to Jacques Becker ("touchez pas au grisbi" ) which Melville was to continue throughout the sixties-sometimes abetted by mean women (the film noir misogyny par excellence),living in a rotten microcosm,ready to inform on -we are far from Jean Seberg's simplistic behavior in Godard's "opus"-.

Cloquet works wonders with the picture:the scene on the beach in a starless night when the two children see their mother die after the shoot-out with the customs officers is absolutely mind-boggling.

There's a good use of voice-over,which Sautet only uses when necessary;thus ,the last lines make the ending even stronger than if we have attended the scenes.

Claude Sautet had found a good niche ,and he followed the "classes tous risques" rules quite well with his follow-up "l'arme à gauche" (1965) which featured Ventura again and made a good use of a desert island and a ship.Had he continued in that vein,France would have had a Howard Hawks.In his subsequent works ,only "Max et les ferrailleurs " (1971) showed something of the brilliance he displayed in the first half of the sixties.He had become ,from "les choses de la vie" onwards,the cinema de qualité director who used to focus on tender-hearted bourgeois in such works as "Cesar et Rosalie" (1972),"Vincent François ,Paul et les autres" (1974) or "Mado" (1976)

Odd one should be able to stumble into "Classe Tous Risques" only by chance; it should be on any "best of film-noir" list, including IMDb's.

Lino Ventura is as good as ever; knowing of his dire, delicate family situation gives extra weight to his almost expressionless face and brief dialogues. Belmondo's restrained performance under Sautet's firm direction only shows what a wonderful actor he could - and should -have been.

"Classe Tous Risques" is utterly mininal, dry and cold, without Melville's artistic scenery, pretty faces and fancy cars. It is almost film-noir meet neo-realism. Davos' few, hard words to his children describing their life of secrecy from there on get a hold on your throat to the end of the film.

The final sentence of the film - a voice-over telling of Davos' end in no more than ten dry, sombre words - leaves you with a hard punch in the stomach.

A true jewel in the great crown of French film-noir.

I have just watched on Italian TV the excellent crime drama CLASSE TOUS RISQUES (1960; aka: THE BIG RISK), directed by Claude Sautet and starring the late Lino Ventura (in one of his best roles) and a very young Jean-Paul Belmondo.

This film came out at the tail end of a string of French gangster thrillers of the 50s, the most famous of which was, of course, Jules Dassin's seminal DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES (1954; aka: RIFIFI). I haven't watched RIFIFI in a long time but I plan to acquire the Criterion DVD some time or other. In fact, I have only postponed it, really, because of the reported audio-synch problem present on the disc's first pressings and, being a non-U.S. resident, Criterion's policy dictates that no defective discs delivered outside Region 1 territories can be replaced! Still, in light of THE BIG RISK, I may risk it [sic] all the same!

When the film came out it converged with a spate of Nouvelle Vague releases including Jean-Luc Godard's A' BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960; aka: BREATHLESS) starring, of course, Jean-Paul Belmondo himself. It is easy to assume that his characterization in THE BIG RISK is nowhere near as iconic as his Laszlo Kovacs in Godard's film, but after all his is a supporting role (albeit pulled off with confidence and charm) and he is all too obviously overshadowed by the underrated Ventura, who dominates the film from beginning to end. Ventura was a regular in gangster films of the period: he was in Jacques Becker's masterful TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (1953; aka: HANDS OFF THE LOOT!) playing the main villainous role and in which he conducts an effective vis-à-vis with nominal star Jean Gabin, but he then took the lead for Jean-Pierre Melville's magnificent thriller set in WWII, L'ARMEE' DES OMBRES (1969; aka: ARMY OF SHADOWS).

Incidentally, next week Criterion will release Melville's BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955) and I hope they can put their hands on other films by this French master, notably LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES (1950), from the play by Jean Cocteau; LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE (1966; aka: SECOND BREATH), also starring Lino Ventura; LE SAMOURAI (1967), his undisputed chef d'oeuvre; the aforementioned L'ARMEE' DES OMBRES and LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970; aka: THE RED CIRCLE). It is worth noting that the last two may very well be future Criterion DVDs. For the record, I have recorded ENFANTS, SAMOURAI, ARMEE' and CERCLE (which I have yet to watch) off French TV, along with the atypical LEON MORIN, PRETRE (1961) and the little-seen LE DOULOS (1962; aka: THE FINGER MAN), both of which star Jean-Paul Belmondo.

To go back to THE BIG RISK, it was dismissed at the time as old-fashioned in light of the Nouvelle Vague, though the few stylistic touches it has are effective exactly because they are sparse and unexpected. After an explosive start, the film relaxes its grip for the first half in order to establish plot (somewhat unusual in its emphasis on the domestic problems of gangsters) and characterization (particularly in eliciting audience sympathy for the lone anti-hero). The plot does have its improbable turns: for example, Belmondo's and Sandra Milo's characters are a bit too good to be true, aiding Ventura without batting an eyelid (despite the obvious danger involved) just minutes after making his acquaintance, while the ending is a bit of a letdown (the film is abruptly interrupted and the plot resolved with a hurried voice-over explanation)...but Ventura's solid performance as a man betrayed, quietly desperate at first but driven eventually to sudden eruptions of violence, holds the film firmly together and makes THE BIG RISK a classic of its kind.

Other films by Claude Sautet I have watched are LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1969), MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS (1971; aka: MAX AND THE SCRAP-MONGERS), CESAR ET ROSALIE (1972), all on Italian TV, and VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL ET LES AUTRES (1974), which I have recorded off French TV. All of these are low-key yet very interesting and thought-provoking films, aided a great deal by a superb selection of actors (Michel Piccoli in CHOSES, MAX and VINCENT; Romy Schneider in the first three titles; and Yves Montand in the last two). VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL ET LES AUTRES is perhaps Sautet's best film: it co-stars Serge Reggiani, Gerard Depardieu (one of his first), Marie Dubois and Stephane Audran (an extended cameo, really, but effective nonetheless).

As I have said, I wish that some of the films I mentioned by Claude Sautet and Jean-Pierre Melville, including of course THE BIG RISK, will one day be released on DVD. Supplements for such films may be hard to come by, I guess, but a quality print in the Original Aspect Ratio with a transfer to match are the least we could expect for them. I know that some of the above-mentioned films are already available on French Region 2 DVD but unfortunately most of them do not carry English subtitles. Although I do have quite a basic knowledge of the French language, I am still not fluent enough to get by without any subtitles. However, I would very much like to read your opinions of French Region 2 DVDs and will affect a search through the Mobius archives for that purpose, though I may still have to post my queries about particular French DVDs which I am interested in purchasing in a new thread in this Forum in the near future.

A discovery. Made in 1960, at the peak of the French New Wave, 'Classe Tous Risques' is a classic gangsters movie, directed by Claude Sautet, the screen adaptation of a novel by José Giovanni. Like many other filmmakers who began their careers during the New French Wave, Sautet and Giovanni, even though they did not belong to the current, became known both as directors and screenwriters of many films of this genre, a genre which a few years later will draw the attention of some of the most famous directors of the New Wave such as Melville or Chabrol. The film brings together on the same screen two of the actors specializing in tough guys roles in French films noir. Lino Ventura was already a well-known actor, while Jean-Paul Belmondo was building up his fame and full of creative hunger. In that year 1960 his name appeared on the credits of no less than eight films. The presence of Ventura and Belmondo, who on the screen as in reality played the roles of master and disciple is just one of the arguments that make 'Classe Tous Risques' a film worth seeing 60 years after its premiere.

Many films had already been made about the 'code of honor' of the underworld, and more would follow. Let's put aside the moral judgments about the 'honor' of those who rob, kill each other or kill innocent people in cold blood, but otherwise they are good familist and people capable of falling in love. Let's admit that the theme is an excellent starting point or core subject for thriller novels and films noir. This is also the case with the story of gangster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura), sentenced to death and pursued by all police of Europe, whose wife is killed when they try to return to France, who is betrayed by his old friends in crime and thus left to fight for survival with his two 8- and 4-year-old boys in her care. The help comes from Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a young gangster in the making, for whom Davos was kind of a moral model, precisely because of his respect for the mob codes of honor. The connection between the two (friendship, master - disciple) is the axis of the film.

Lino Ventura acts wonderfully in a type of role in which he specialized in those years, the tough guy followed by everyone who carries a gun, and whose chances of surviving until 'Fin' appears on the screen are low. He is however surpassed, I believe, in this film by Jean-Paul Belmondo, who manages to give a positive touch to his role, with the help of Sandra Milo as the young actress with whom Eric begins a relationship that may be his chance not to repeat the fate of Abel . The filming has rhythm and fluency, the characters are believable and the action flows interestingly until the final part, which confronts us with a less common ending for films of this genre, perhaps inspired by docu-novels that were also in vogue in those years. It's worth, I think, to see the movie and get to the end to judge by yourselves.

Classe Tous Risques (The Big Risk) is repeatedly recommended every time I look up a Jean-Pierre Melville film that I had to give it a watch as soon as possible. Since I've been discovering Melville and seemingly working backwards through his filmography, it would be easy for me to mistake this as one of his films, but it was made in 1960, by Claude Sautet, before Melville would come and stake his claim on french neo-noir.

Classe Tous Risques has two of the best lead men of the time, Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Ventura plays Abel, a gangster exiled in Italy with his wife and two kids, who wants to come back to Paris because the police are closing in on him. After a roaring and fast paced opening with a big surprise, Abel eventually gets hooked up with Eric Stark (Belmondo) who wants to get into the criminal underworld. Stark becomes Abel's chauffeur and eventual only friend in an underworld that turns it's back on Abel after everything he's done and been through. The film shows the the duality of the two men, the older Abel at the end of his time after tragedy strikes him, and the younger Eric starting off the same way Abel did, falling in love with a beautiful woman who sticks with her man despite the world they are a part of. It never ends pretty for them, or their loved ones. Its one thing to see a individual criminal come to his demise, its different when he has loved ones he risks taking down with him.

Much like Melville's film, the seemingly simple story gets more subtlety complicated as it goes along. As usual, as what I feel with Melville's films, it left my head spinning (in a good way) and dying to re watch it again to pick up what I missed the first time. Classe Tous Risques is a definite keeper.

I agree with all the strenghts mentioned in the other reviews but there are some beats missing here that keep it firmly inside the genre of crime drama or film noir and limit it from being a great drama beyond the limits of the "elements" that make up film noir--not to say that the great film noirs aren't/can't/shouldn't be also great dramas, but this one isn't.

One other note the music in the film is used sparingly but I would say is used to accentuate the action more frequently than the wife elements.

Great set up to this film by the way with an abrupt sort of non ending ending that is either just right or a let down depends.

Spoilers follow as to some specifics.

The big turn in the story involves the children seeing their mother die, or it should be the big moment. But the children are never shown to react one way or the other. Neither cries, neither asks their father what happened, the kids are good actors and the reactions of the father are I suppose what matters but this is a big misstep. This is the heart of the story and the kids are kept mostly blank in their reaction. They really just have none, in the next scene they look as if nothing happened.

In like fashion there is a bond that forms between Belmondo and Ventura's characters. Belmondo says he knew the partner who was killed--but this is never explained and has no impact dramatically on Belmondo or anyone else. The Belmondo romantic subplot also strains credibility though it's convincingly acted. Ventura's character just lets Belmondo involve a total stranger in their escape plan for no reason. He doesn't even comment or seem to notice. Another gap.

The ending to the movie, and I won't spoil it, the ending happens off screen with a perfunctory voice over to tell you what happened. I guess this tries to make it feel more true to life, but again like these other missteps leaves drama off screen.

What's the point of not dealing with these issues? I don't know, other than maybe the goals of the film were limited to giving the audience what it wants from a crime melodrama--suggest some deeper elements, then move on to ignore them.

IN CONCLUSION THEN.

Too bad there is much to recommend this film, Ventura is very very good, but too bad it could have been a great drama as well as a crime story--as with IMDb favorite movie of all time THE GODFATHER. This film had potential. Would make for a good remake though if done in the U.S. more problems would probably sink the film, but in the hands of the right director this would be a good remake,though it's doubtful Ventura's performance could be topped.

So worth seeing but frustrating as a whole

The film Classe tous risques directed by Claude Sautet was not a film, to be honest, I had ever really heard of until the Film Forum in NYC said that they would have a 2-week screening of the film, with new English subtitles. When I also read that it was in the vein of the classic French crime films ala Jean Pierre Melville, I jumped at the chance to check it out (at best it would rank up with his great works, and at worst I would get some good popcorn in a great theater). It was well worth the admission, as Classe tous risques is one of those kinds of French films that is just waiting to be re-discovered (or discovered for the first time). With terrific, tense diligence, Sautet keeps the suspense at a tight pitch for the first forty minutes of the film, keeping a good (if not great) middle section, and then ending it up with what is always expected with these films, but with fascinating motivations by way of the characters. With a film in the vein of this sort, you know how it will end, but it's the cool, observant journey that counts.

The film features a performance with some real truth and honesty, amid the "old-school" criminal's code, by Lino Ventura as Aldo, who at the start of the film (one of the best beginnings to a film in this genre and country) steals a hefty amount of money with his partner in crime). When there is a sudden, ugly twist of fate on a beach late one night, Aldo is again on the run with two little kids. He gets the aid of Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo, a role in tune with Le Doulos only with a smidgen more humanity and charisma), who is also a thief and drives him into Paris. But there are some problems with some of Aldo's old business partner's, and one old score may be just the right ticket. A couple of times the plot may seem to be leisurely, but it isn't. Like Melville, Sautet doesn't allow any fat to his story, and it's a very tightly structured film, with some good doses of humor here and there (I was sometimes grinning at the audacity of the criminals in the beginning chase sequence, and also with a particular woman who had a finicky thing with her cat and a fish).

Along with a fine score by the great George Delerue, exceptional cinematography, and a mood that is seldom met let alone matched now adays, Classe tous risques is a reminder of that bridge between the real old-school film-noir, and the latter day crime films. Gangsters in these new sort of "thug-life" movies have a 1000th of the class and honor of the thieves in this film, and is a second banana to the works of Melville and Jules Dassin (a compliment I assure you). That it has a good realistic, moral edge helps as well.

"Classe tous risques" feels like the granddaddy of "The Sopranos" in mixing the criminal and the domestic, and of the buddy film to feel as contemporary as "Reservoir Dogs."

Even as these gangsters are affectionately entangled with wives, children, lovers and parents, they are coldly ruthless, and we are constantly reminded they are, no matter what warm situation we also see them in. They can tousle a kid's hair - and then shoot a threat in cold blood. The key is loyalty, and the male camaraderie is beautifully conveyed, without ethnic or class stereotypes, even as their web of past obligations and pay backs narrows into suspicion and paranoia, as the old gang is in various stages of parole, retirement, out on bail or into new, less profitable ventures. An intense accusation is of sending a stranger to perform an old escape scenario. It is a high point of emotion when a wife is told off that she's not the one the gangster is friends with, while virtually the only time we hear music on the soundtrack is when he recalls his wife.

Streetscapes in Italy and France are marvelously used, in blinding daylight to dark water and highways, from the opening set up of a pair of brazen robbers -- who are traveling with one's wife and two kids. Rugged, craggy Lino Ventura captures the screen immediately as the criminal dad. And the second thug is clearly a casually avuncular presence in their lives, as they smoothly coordinate the theft and escape, in cars, buses, on boats and motorcycles, in easy tandem. This is not the cliché crusty old guy softened with the big-eyed orphan; these are their jobs and their families and they intersect in horrific ways.

The film pulls no punches in unexpectedly killing off characters, directly and as collateral damage, and challenging our sympathy for them, right through to the unsentimental end, which is probably why there was never an American remake.

It seems so fresh that it's not until Jean-Paul Belmondo enters almost a third of the way into the film, looking so insouciant as a young punk, that one realizes that this is from 1960. Sultry Sandra Milo has smart and terrific chemistry with him, from an ambulance to an elevator to a hospital bed.

While the Film Forum was showing a new 35 mm print with newly translated subtitles, it was not pristine. The program notes explained that the title refers to a kind of insurance policy and is pun on "tourist class."

Lino Ventura stars in this and although born in Italy lived most of his life in France and was a great favourite of French cinema in the 50s through to the 80s but he was no Belmondo. Often referred to as French 'noir' this is nothing of the sort, well its b/w and about gangsters but that's all. Indeed for at least the first half this movie is more related to the Italian neo-realism movement with ultra naturalistic action (and even children in tow). The film jumps into life when Belmondo appears and leaps fully into life when he starts a relationship with the lovely Sandra Milo, who is still working today. Belmondo was fresh from Breathless when he made this and for me it is those 60s moments rather than the rather dour 50s scenes that make this for me. Lots of great location shooting including Milan and Paris and decent score help this along but having been 'lost' for so long has perhaps given this a little more of a reputation than it deserves. Still, an interesting watch even if we don't care what happens to anyone, excepting the ever intriguing, Jean-Paul Belmondo.

This one could be literally counted as the "old-ennui-phallocentric-deadpan-servitude" experience of a French gangster life, shortly, a disaster Jean-Paul Belmondo is beguiling, the others? Are skimble-scamble. The French-New-Waves influences of the auteurism is in this interminable delible voice-out-frame character introduction and interminable non-diegetically fade-out cut, elucidated dissected narrative that are also insufferable and shallow-framed. It could be as nonseasoned as The Godfather, but at least you have to make it watchable in some points. The inner spirt is even transcended by those suck Hollywood gangster movies, the only appreciable part can be the realism setting somewhere, but nothing grow-up on it, and the children in a gangster movie for a further moralization, though they are also just "parts", you can not connect it with the whole film, or you would be lost. The whole film had excluded the audiences from these unawared use of auteurism and Knowing-you-are-watching-a-film-sleights to a stage of appreciating this as an arthouse interpretable experience, but then, Claude Sautet showed how he, himself, doesn't know and want anything about it.

Film Forum How could this film be screened everyday 4 times for a week?

I saw this film at Telluride Film Festival in 1997, where one of the screenwriters, José Giovanni, was being honored. It ranks highly as a great noir-crime-drama, incredible performances by Belmondo and Lino Ventura. The attention given to every character, and complex psychological portrayals, detailing loyalty, treachery, love, and hope, are tremendous. It is an excellent drama, an excellent thriller, and an excellent film. Up there with the best of Melville. (The title in English 'Class all risk,' in French 'Classe tous risques' is word-play on 'Classe Touriste,' meaning 'Tourist Class'.

they robbed couriers in the Italian cities, but those robberies were quick and confusing to the pedestrians, so why the laws so easily identified these two culprits and so certain that those crimes were committed by these two criminals? when they emerged from the subway entrance, got into a car and drove away, why they had to drive so fast to get away? there's nobody identified them yet. when Raymond hijacked a car in the border town and his partner met him on the road, why they didn't drive away in their first car and had to switch to the hot car just hijacked a moment ago? there were so many illogic arrangements of the scenarios, simply so readily convenient to serve the going of the storyline. by quick tempo, unpredictable incidents happened one after another, it so easily to fool the viewers without any hard trying to convince them with creditability. a professional criminal with a wife and two kids on the run with a die-hard partner is indeed quite dramatically interesting, but all the unnecessary twists are just too unnatural and contrived to be accepted by a viewer with basic reasoning. the film used a lot of chain reactions to serve the upcoming incidents one after another, but not tried hard to develop the characters from the very beginning to the end, only by patching up many pieces of the incidents on the quilt cover without any solid insulation materials inside the quilt. watchable, but not as great as many viewers' high praises.

Ruthless, cold-hearted individuals killing randomly then going on the run does not, of itself, make for authentic Film Noir, in my opinion. Dark, yes, violent, certainly, but where is the characterisation, the inbuilt conscience that would give the excessive violence some sort of moral standpoint? Unfortunately, this approach is all too typical of French Noir. Perhaps the movie needed a Jean Gabin to inject some reality into the action. Lino Ventura, for all his screen presence, is no substitute.

Ultimately, despite everyone trying very hard, this movie is no more than routine.

Both Bresson and Melville are reputed to be big fans of "Classe Tous Risques" and it's easy to see why; either man could have directed this classic French gangster picture. The actual director was Claude Sautet and it's one of the greatest second films in movie history, (in the 15 year period between 1956 and 1970 Sautet made only 4 films). He made this one in 1960 around the time of the New Wave and while it's more traditional than something Godard or Truffaut might have done, nevertheless Sautet brings to it a freshness of approach that other gangster pictures of the period seem to lack. From the absolutely stunning opening sequence it's clear that this film will be infused with a good dose of existential angst as well as the requisite thrills that a really good gangster movie needs.

Two fugitives, (Lino Ventura and Stan Krol), have decided it's time to get out of Italy and back to France as the net closes in around them but they need money. They commit a foolhardy, though daring, daylight robbery and go on the run. This opening and the chase that follows is as good as anything in crime movies. The money they make, however, is hardly enough to sustain them, (Ventura has a wife and two sons to support), so they must rely on a network of friends and criminal associates and men on the run, already operating on the very edge, need all the friends they can get, however untrustworthy they may be and these guys friends prove to be very untrustworthy indeed but when tragedy strikes Ventura seems to have no option.

With the possible exceptions of Dassin's "Rififi" and several of Jean-Pierre Melville's classic gangster pictures this remains one of the greatest of genre films and is all the better for being, fundamentally, a low-key character piece. Ventura is perfect as the world-weary thief who would really rather just settle down and raise his family and he is matched by a young Jean-Paul Belmondo as the stranger who becomes his only real friend and ally. The brilliant black and white cinematography is by Ghislain Cloquet, (it was shot largely on location), and it is beautifully adapted by Sautet, Pascal Jardin and Jose Giovanni from Giovanni's novel.

A film reduced to its essentials (photographed images in sequence) to portray the dawn and dusk of two stoical gangsters that are also human beings. Milan, Nice, Paris, a journey from exile to tragedy, the disloyalty of old partners, a total stranger that becomes the younger image in the mirror, a new friendship---in Sautet hands, all of these human happenings are conveyed not by words but by the power of images, expressions, action, angles, movement, gestures, moments. Sautet belongs to the same league of Melville, Bresson and other masters of the craft of putting together "pictures in motion".

"Less is more". Minimalism assumes that the moviegoer is a human being too, s/he interprets, reflects, makes sense and finds meanings. No distractions and full advantage of the cinematic form: images, sound, edition. Not everything has to be shown or explained. Less words and less information demand for the viewer to fill in the blanks, an active role that might be hard to take. But once the watcher accepts the challenge, the outcome is a tailor-made experience---he is not a passive watcher anymore.

His only crime drama, before MAX ET LES FERRAILEURS and also if you wish L'ARME A GAUCHE, that can be considered as a crime film, but not for me.... For the rest, Claude Sautet was more specialized in great dramas and characters studies. One the best, if not the best, in this kind of cinema. So, back to this one, it is the only film starring both Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura, in an incredible but moving story of a friendship, very unlikely, implausible at first sight, gripping. A gangster on the run tries to get help from his former associates and of course each of them declines...Only Jean-Paul Belmondo's character will do it...Inspired from actual events, involving a famous hoodlum who, during the war collaborated with the nazis, before resuming his criminal career as a bank robber, once peace came back in France in 1945. This movie shows hios last part of life, after 1946.