For me his crime films come down to one idea - if more than one person is involved, there will be a double cross.
But they had style.
“We could get the money from Bob Montagne, but he’s in jail.
Of course.”
Not only does he own it, he’s the sole proprietor, he’s the original inventor, and he holds all patents.
There wasn’t a crime genre before Bob Le Flambeur and there ceased to be one after Un Flic.
Jean-Pierre Melville IS crime genre.
“Not only does he own it, he’s the sole proprietor, he’s the original inventor, and he holds all patents.”
Haha, well said, Fredo.
double post.
Louis Feuillade worked a little on crime films with Judex and Les Vampires and after that Fritz Lang made his series of Dr. Mabuse films. I agree that Melville specialized in crime films but I wouldn’t go so far to say he “invented” the genre.
Vince – I’m pretty sure he invented movies period.
I don’t recall there being movies prior to 1956.
he didnt invent it and he didnt own it. though i like his films, theyre incredibly repetitive.
melville owes everything to classic film noir. theyre the true masters of the crime genre. and the crime genre as we know it is a hollywood genre. everything else is a riff off of that model.
http://www.filmforum.org/films/crimewave.html
@ Bobby Wise and those claiming he didn’t “own” the genre, but owed his style to film noir. Yes, obviously it is true that Jean-Pierre Melville was heavily influenced by the American Noir and Hard-boiled flicks/novels, however, all his films stand alone, apart from noir. Anyone who is in the least bit familiar with Melville, knows he is a genre in and of himself. All of his films are almost immediately distinguishable as his own- a major mark of an established auteur. Fritz Lang’s M used many of the techniques that Citizen Kane is famous for and received credit for- why is this? Because it was Welles who took Lang’s and other directors techniques and INCORPORATED all of them into a distinguishable package, using established techniques/ideas in new ways. Melville did the same with the Film Noir and Crime genres, taking all the best elements of them and incorporating them into his own cinematic language. Don’t buy it? Try naming a director/auteur with more than 3 “classic”/“famous”/what have you Noir films. Even more so, try naming Auteur driven film noirs (the sole exception I am coming up with is Orson Welles with Touch of Evil, The Stranger, and The Lady From Shanghai and maybe Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly). Melville took the “cool” from Noir and made it super cool.
double post.
Well poopbutt, I’d reply to you’re challenge with John Huston.
Still, only Melville was able to dial “cool” to 11. You got that right.
melville isnt a genre in and of himself. unless by “genre,” you mean “auteur”, which he was. by your rationale, any director with a unique voice is a genre in and of themselves. maybe thats true, but i still prefer to use the term auteur.
what did “m” do that “kane” made famous?
an auteur with more than 3 classic noirs? well, you already mentioned one. welles. and you already mentioned the second. lang. somebody else mentioned huston. thats three. want more? lets not forget about wilder. thats four. jules dassin makes 5. and so on and so forth.
Monsieur Jules Dassin was a master, Rififi, Naked City and He who must die…a must see…
“Still, only Melville was able to dial “cool” to 11. You got that right.”
That’s the quote of the day.
To be serious, Melville isn’t a genre. He’s just a dude. The only person I’d call a “genre” is Jenna Jameson but that’s a whole other discussion. And I will refrain from using the word “auteur” since I don’t really care for that word. But I will say he had a very distinguishable style and specific stories he was interested in telling. None of these individual aspects were particularly new but the combination of his style, the stories he was telling, in the genre he was playing in was different. Obviously, his films have become a huge influence on filmmakers that came after him – Scorsese, Mann, De Palma, Friedkin, etc. – and it is my feeling that his films stand superior to a lot of the crime films that came before him. He may not have the name recognition that Huston & Wilder have (at least in the U.S.) but his skill was certainly on par with the best of them.
@Bobby Wise – M’s influence on Citizen Kane (much more stuff out there to read on it if you look around): http://www.brentonpriestley.com/writing/citizen_kane_m.htm…..and how is Billy Wilder a master of the crime/noir genre? Unless I am mistaken he has only made one film noir – Double Indemnity. Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole have some film noir elements to them (more SB than AITH) but dont really strike me as traditional crime/film noir films.
I do so like my Melville, but calling him the come-all-end-all of crime cinema movie makers is ludicrous.
Of course.
—PolarisDiB
Jean-Pierre Melville makes Herman Melville look like Moby Dick.
Fritz Lang is way up there. I can’t recall if he ever specifically made a heist movie though.
dp
I think Melville’s Un Flic is underrated, I like that film a lot.
Un Flic was fun. Not as good as some of his earlier films, but still cool.
I love the helicopter over the train sequence. One of the most obvious miniature sequences I’ve ever seen but I love it anyway.
Woody Allen n_n
My personal favorites crime masters are John Huston, Seijun Suzuki, Jean-Pierre Melville and last in line… John Woo.
If you like Melville I highly recommend giving the early films of Huston and Suzuki a look.
Jean-Pierre Grumbach changed his last name to Melville because of his love for “Pierre or The Ambiguities” (filmed by Leos Carax as “POLA X”)
Melville would not exist without Huston and Wise — and he’d be the first to say so.
Jules Dassin is another great crime genre director, as are Sam Fuller and Kurosawa.
He also said he and Cluzout were the only good filmmakers in France.
This is why I love the guy.
I love the image of Melville tooling around Paris in his big-ass Cadillac convertible.
you asked for auteur-driven noir films, which isnt hard to find. but now it seems like youre making a distinction between crime films and films noir. i believe all films noir are crime films at heart (or thrillers; literally, a film where crime plays a large element, not necessarily focusing on traditional criminals though, like professional gangsters or murderers). but not all crime films are noirs (theres still a very close relation).
to go even further, it seems like youre making a distinction between crime films and caper films. the caper film is a subgenre of the crime film, true. so if you want to say melville was the undisputed master of the caper film, then maybe you have a better argument.
so it comes down to semantics. what are we debating regarding melville? films noir, crime films, or caper films?
and for the record, wilder made more than one noir. “sunset blvd” is one of the most important classic noirs ever made. its a defining film. “ace in the hole” is a very unique noir, but noir nontheless. theyre not traditional crime films in the sense of gangster films, but many noirs arent.
The master of the crime genre is Fritz Lang…
I suppose this all depends on whether or not you admit filmmakers who aren’t directors into the “auteur” club. I could point to any film shot by John Alton—even the ones he shot for Anthony Mann—and claim that Alton was the prime mover behind them. Oh, and Anthony Mann made a few pretty good films noir, even when he was making Westerns.
For what it’s worth, whenever I think of French film noir, I think of Rififi before I think of any of Melville’s films. I like it better. I also like Jacques Becker’s films about as much. I also tend to like the less reputable noir films. I mean, I love Out of the Past and The Postman Always Rings Twice as much as the next girl, but that’s not as much fun as diving into films like Hollow Triumph or The Big Combo. Are there French B-movie equivalents? I know that there are Japanese equivalents.
PoopButt
After seeing Le Samourai, Bob Le Flambeur, Le Doulos, and The Red Circle I’m beginning to think more and more that Jean-Pierre Melville owns the Crime genre. Discuss.