MUBI

Jean-Pierre Melville’s first unquestionably great film is this famous heist yarn from the mid ’50’s, which was so original in its independent spirit, shot on the fly when money was available, that it became the template for the New Wave three years later. Roger Duchesne is Bob Montagne, a “high roller” who is constantly betting his last dollar, but like many Melville heroes, the adversity of bad luck doesn’t stop him, it only compels him to get more, leading eventually to an impossible heist plan of a heavily fortified casino vault, a mission that seems to spell doom at every turn. But Melville isn’t concerned with the heist as much as he would be a decade later with “Le Cercle Rouge”, here he’s interested in Bob and his lifestyle, the young hood who idolizes him (Daniel Cauchy), the sexy teenager he adopts off the street for the boy (Isabelle Corey), and the way in which Bob uses compulsive gambling less as a means of living than as an adrenaline for living. By comparison with the first films of the New Wave, “Bob le flambeur” is still classical in design, with little improvisation, and Melville’s meticulous mise-en-scene, which pays homage to American gangster films, is tightly controlled.