Le Doulos | My Movie Diary Returns!

Last year, I was able to pull off my rather silly goal of writing a review for every movie I saw through those twelve months. The effort of writing so many reviews, many for films that didn’t really deserve all that much thought or bandwidth, left me semi-burned out on the whole endeavor. So after a (lengthy) break, My Movie Diary is returning, but with a new mission: write a couple reviews a month, highlighting the most notable flicks I’ve seen during the past two weeks. To that end, here’s my take on the 1963 underworld noir Le Doulos:

Le Doulos (1963) – Thanks to the awesome Kanopy app on my RokuTV, I’ve recently been taking a deep dive into the crime flicks of legendary French noir auteur Jean-Pierre Melville. They’ve got a tasty selection of Melville gems that also includes Bob le Flambeur (1956), Two Men in Manhattan (1959), and Un Flic (1970). But I saw those days ago! I’m here to write about Le Doulos, whose title is apparently 50s French slang for a police informant. The titular “le doulos” is played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, the poster boy for debonair Gallic ne’er-do-wells. Belmondo plays Silien, a small-time hood who finds himself mixed up in a pair of unsolved murders. The film pivots on the question of where Silien’s loyalties lie – is he really working with the cops to set up his friends, or is he just trying to save himself by staying on the good side of the police? The first half of the flick actually follows the exploits of Maurice, an ex-con who gets out of prison only to find himself knee-deep in vengeance, murder, and robbery. As played by sad-sack Serge Reggiani, Maurice exudes a fatalistic ennui that puts the audience squarely in his corner, even when he’s engaged in some unsavory pursuits. He also looks a bit like Rowan Atkinson, so I must admit that I had occasional flashes that I was watching Mr. Bean’s French Noir Holiday. It’s not until Maurice gets thrown back in jail for murder that the flick shifts its main focus to Belmondo’s Silien. And then just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, there’s a lengthy scene where Belmondo explains that you actually still have it wrong. It’s a solid film, maybe a shade more talky than it needs to be, but with noir atmosphere to spare.

Melville uses his Paris locations to great effect by focusing not on the grand architecture and beautiful skyline, but by diving down into the gutters, filthy alleys, and run-down apartments where his characters live and work. He breaks out some real style on occasion, beginning with a moody tracking shot that opens the film by following Maurice through a shadowy tunnel. The best bit is a fantastic interrogation scene with Belmondo and a trio of detectives that’s done in one uninterrupted ten-minute shot, the camera swiveling, circling, and bouncing around the room as the conversation moves from one character to the next. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there’s a pretty tough-to-watch sequence of Belmondo’s Silien brutalizing Maurice’s girlfriend in his pursuit of the truth. The scene is placed so close to the start of the flick that it colors everything Belmondo does for the rest of the film – even though a (very) late reveal strives to make the whole ordeal easier to handle in retrospect. If you can get past that, Le Doulos is a solid noir thriller with enough twists and turns to satisfy genre fans, and a typically French finale that wraps things up with a shocking blast.