In the Mood for Melville

A retrospective of the films of

Jean-Pierre Melville

(with Thai & English subtitles)

It’s a loaded question why there isn’t a single Thai movie or TV soap inspired by the Free Thai experience, with Free Thai military and civilian characters in their great and noble adventure. Well, except for ‘Koo Gum’ [‘The Karmic Pair’] in which the Free Thai villains radio for the bomb that kills the hero, a Japanese occupying soldier (with weeping pregnant Thai wife).

The great charm of French cinema surely stems partly from the fact that their first indie filmmaker—who was rejected by the system but set up his own studio—was a former French Resistance fighter, who wedded his love for golden age Hollywood noir with his own wartime experience to manifest a new cool noir for the world to copy in turn. As Thai dudes of a certain age know, having dreamt of being “handsome as Alain Delon”.

BOB THE GAMBLER

1956, Rialto Pictures, 104 min, France

Melville’s classic film is less a true noir than (in the director’s words) “a comedy of manners” – a romantic meditation on Montmartre, faithless women, old pros and casinos waiting to be knocked over. Suffused with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, BOB was “a letter to a Paris which no longer existed.”

THE FINGER MaN

1962, Rialto Pictures, 110 min, France/Italy

Director Jean-Pierre Melville met actor Jean-Paul Belmondo during Melville’s brief cameo in Godard’s BREATHLESS – here, he gives Belmondo one of his best roles, that of a two-faced informer caught between the police and his “old pal,” played by doom-faced Serge Reggiani.

LÉON MORIN, PRIEST

1961, Rialto Pictures, 130 min, France/Italy

In a French Alps village during WWII, widowed mother Barny (Emmanuelle Riva) walks into a confessional, but not as a believer; a communist and atheist, she is more concerned about the welfare of her daughter during the occupation. The priest she speaks to, Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo, wonderfully cast against type), proves exceptionally insightful, and as they begin to have philosophical conversations outside of church, she feels a growing attraction to the young man. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Henri Decaë, this is among the most thoughtful examinations of faith and its challenges ever made.

The red circle

1970, Rialto Pictures, 150 min, France/Italy

“When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle.” The three men brought together in this taut crime thriller are recent parolee Alain Delon, escaped prisoner Gian Maria Volontè and ex-cop Yves Montand, who together target a Paris jewelry shop (in a bravura heist sequence to rival RIFIFI’s) while on the run from both the police and a local gangster.

ARMY OF SHADOWS

1969, Rialto Pictures, 150 min, France/Italy

Arguably director Jean-Pierre Melville’s most personal film (he fought in the French underground during World War II), this shattering portrait of the early days of the French Resistance is not so much a crime film as it is a fascinating companion to the director’s more famous thrillers. The dark, fatalistic tone and the themes are all there from Melville’s noirs: betrayal, the loss of honor and the mechanics of brutality. Legendary tough guy Lino Ventura stars in what Melville called “a nostalgic pilgrimage back to a certain period which profoundly marked my generation.” With Simone Signoret and Paul Meurisse.

The silence of the sea

1949, Janus Films, 88 min, France

Based on the popular Vercors novel about occupied France, director Jean-Pierre Melville’s feature debut is largely set in a French home commandeered by the Nazis for one of their officers (Howard Vernon). The uncle (Jean-Marie Robain) and niece (Nicole Stéphane) who live there cooperate grudgingly, refusing to speak to their German guest, though over time his friendly overtures have their effect. Made outside the French studio system on a shoestring budget, with extensive use of location shooting and natural light, this involving drama helped plant seeds that would later blossom as the French New Wave.

In the Mood for Melville

2017, 58 min, France – Director: Benjamin Clavel

Making just fourteen films during his twenty-five-year career, Jean-Pierre Melville has become an international legend. Marked by a cool abstraction, moody night scenes exploring the introspective mythology of the gangster underworld, cold violence and virile friendships, the films of this master of crime tragedy have attained cult status

[In English with English /Thai subtitles.]

Presented by Institut français, Special thanks to The French Embassy (Thailand), La Fête, Alliance Française Bangkok, Jean-Pierre Melville Centennial and Jean-Pierre Melville Foundation.