Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Bob le Flambeur review: The plot was a complex saga. The film captured some brief shots of Paris in a noir mood. It gave a classic sensation to the picture. The movie didn't have a gripping tone. The characters had a deep nature that was underneath the surface. In addition I loved the vehicles that were driven for an example, the Cat-lax, and other stylish 1950s vehicles. I am in shock that Jean-Pierre Melville had directed that movie because it wasn't as great like his other titles such as 'Le Doulos' and 'A cop'. I was supremely disappointed. Sadly the substance was weak. But then again it was the picture he had choreographed before those two films in the 1950s. That title didn't have enough scenes of pure French scenery unfortunately. The costume and production designing could of been at it rich climax. But on the other hand my ears were trapped when I heard the Jazz soundtrack that was played by expensive instruments. I could easily tale that it had a powerful Hollywood inspiration. It had a strong French style I give the motion picture a 5 ½ 10

Roger Duchesne is Bob le Flambeur, the gambler, who is unable to keep away from the casinos in the seedy district of Montmartre. He has pretty seedy friends too. They get together and plan to pull an armed robbery of one of the clubs. The robbery is to be one of those suspenseful, precisely timed jobs in which some little thing always goes wrong and holds up the plan. The cops, not unfriendly types, are vaguely aware that something is up and an Inspector even warns Bob to stay clean. (He's been in the pen before.) Two "somethings" go awry in this story. The first of them is Isabelle Corey, a blond dancer at a nightclub and sometime lady of the evening, or rather early morning, when the clubs are shutting their lights off and the streets are still filled with drunken sailors.Isabelle Corey is a friend of Bob le Flambeur. I called his friends "seedy" before, but it would be a mistake to call Isabelle Corey "seedy." Not a bit. No seeds here. She's more like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June. Her hair is long and invitingly tousled, her eyes often downcast, her expression shy, her arms and most of her chest usually bare, and she seems to shiver slightly when she moves. And she doesn't seem more than slightly put out when somebody slaps her for being naughty. My kind of woman! Lamentably, one of the gang of thieves is Paolo and Paolo has a big mouth. He tells Isabelle Corey and Isabelle mentions it to somebody who talks to the police. Hearing of this, Bob le Flambeur is aghast. But, ever the optimist, he figures maybe it didn't penetrate to the proper ears within the gendarmerie. No Frenchman should ever be so optimistic. They should be like Mexicans, fatalistic to a fault.The second thing that goes wrong is that Bob le Flambeur is supposed to be an inside man at one of the casinos. He's to meet the rest of the gang at just about the hour of closing and they will make a coordinated attack on the confused and befuddled casino staff.But Bob le Flambeur is, after all, a flambeur and hanging around for a couple of hours in a gambling house, doing nothing but watching, proves to be impossible for him. So, putting aside for the moment any thoughts about his rendezvous with the others, he places a small bet. Winning, he places a larger bet. Continuing to win, he moves from roulette to the bacarat table. The bills pile up to a considerable height in front of them and he never bats an eye as the money accumulates. Robbery? WHAT robbery? In most movies of this sort, especially during the 1950s, this is the point at which the hero loses all on a single bet, steps outside to meet his destiny, and is plugged by the other gang members, for whom some sins are unforgivable.Not here. Jean-Pierre Melville is not that kind of a director and not interested in such a tragic story. It suddenly occurs to Bob that he has a robbery to pull off but by the time he rushes outside, the gang have been stopped in their tracks by the cops. Knowing he was implicated, they put the cuffs on Bob too.But as Bob sits in the police car, the staff of the casino bring out all his winnings, enough to keep him in clover for a long time. With the right lawyer, muses one police officer, you could get only a few years. With a better lawyer, another thinks, you could get a suspended sentence and no time at all. Bob le Flambeur looks into the camera and says that with the best of lawyers he could sue for damages and walk away with still more loot.This sounds like a comedy but it's all played straight. A narrator somberly keeps us informed of Bob's actions and thoughts. Nobody laughs. Nobody even smiles. Melville was a neat guy, amiable and polite. He took his name from the author of "Moby Dick." And he was a friend of Margaret Mead, about whom he made a delightful short documentary, when they were both old. In the last shot of that documentary, Melville is holding the camera and walking backward away from the Venerable Mead. "Bye-bye, Margaret", he calls. Mead smiles and waves her hand, growing smaller in the distance, "Bye-bye, Jean." More sweet and satisfying than Bob le Flambeur but both films reflect his engaging personality.

Here we have a remarkable portrait of a man who is dashing, suave, and together on the outside but who can't pass a second without drawing on a cigarette, tipping a glass, or tossing a card or die. This classic caper film is often mentioned along with "Breathless" -- and its protagonist, it seems, would suffocate if he couldn't indulge his addictions.The film draws you in like an addictive substance: You can't help but want to try it, and once you do, you're hooked. When Bob is on screen you can't look away. Presence like this is a treat. (Who is this actor, Roger Duchesne, anyway? I'd never seen him before and there's nothing but a 'stub' on him on Wikipedia. Dommage!) I loved this film but it leaves me uncomfortable and dissatisfied, though I don't fault the production. My discomfort centers on the sense of waste and missed opportunity that defines addiction. There is a part of Bob that wants to connect meaningfully with other human beings, particularly in a fatherly, mentor-like way. (Lacking a father and having an overworked, washerwoman mother he himself missed out on this kind of nurturing.) He takes stabs at trying to protect Paolo, the son of an ex-heist partner, and he tries to shelter the underage streetwalker Anne, but his efforts seem desultory at best. Bob can't focus for more than a moment or two on anything that could lead to intimacy. There's always that next drink, drag, or bet to pursue...As Bob tells the police commissioner, he's been "good" for the past 20 years, yet he rots in a jail of his own making. We see the extent of this devastation in the final scene when Bob rides in the squad car after his crew has been killed. To Bob it's just another day, another deal. He even looks younger, with his hair more graying than white at this point, as he hints at buying out the cops. It's only a matter of time before he's back at the tables. That's when he'll be breathing freely again...

"Bob the high-roller," as he was called in the translation I watched; loves gambling. He's also a thief. Everyone thinks he's retired, including the police sergeant he keeps in touch with. But he suddenly gets a taste for it again, and decides to put a group together and rob a casino. Remade un-memorably with Nick Nolte as The Good Thief, this black and white French original created the clichés that made the whole world sing, from Ocean's Eleven (1960), Reservoir Dogs (1991), Casino (1994) and every other breezy heist movie ever made. Stanley Kubrick said he stopped making crime movies because Melville made the perfect one here.Great characters, a memorable score with jazzy sections, great performances, and probably the best pacing and story of any heist/noir/crime movie from the 30's, 40's or 50's. This is just guaranteed compulsively good entertainment, and as a first experience from Jean-Pierre Melville, instantly encourages me to see everything else he did. My next steps will by Le Cercle Rouge, Army in the Shadows and Le Samourai.