Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Wonderful character development!

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the greatest gangster films of all time, only Rififi really surpasses "Bob the Gambler". Although Melville's work predates the nouvelle vague movement by a few years, this stunning film clearly paves the way for the movement with its innovative editing, fast pace, use of non-professional actors, location shooting and unconventional story structure.The energy these techniques inject is a far cry from the stilted, stage-bound dramas such as Christian-Jaque's Nana that were being produced in France at the same time.The character of Bob is well-drawn and his gambling addiction is by turns tragic and farcical (he even has a slot machine in his wardrobe).The momentum builds throughout but, like Hamlet, there is deceptively little action. The audience is left in suspense as they are taken through the planning phase of the audacious heist and then witness it unravel before it even begins.The 16 year old non-professional Isabelle Corey does an excellent job in a brave role. Her mixture of naivety and street-awareness comes across well, so the decision to use an amateur is well-justified.The noir lighting techniques and cinematography are still fresh in this film and the outdoor settings are what lend it the new vitality. This also reinforces the notion that this film is taking place in a real underworld, that you could go out tonight and walk around the very same streets in Montmartre and Pigalle as these gangsters inhabit.Of course, it is Bob's gambling addiction that also, expectedly, leads to his downfall as his one winning streak ultimately proves to be his unluckiest of all. Of course, that is contrived but it works well and, again, helps to build the suspense of the film.The ending is both fulfilling and subversive. Again, there is a hint of realism as the audience knows that, in real life, gangsters would be unlikely to succeed in such a scheme and that so many criminals are foiled from the outset. The ending is rapid and encapsulates the energy and freshness of the film as a whole. Bob is left standing, the old man who can no longer keep up with the energy of the new world and burnt out by his gambling.Melville proves himself to be a true auteur here and sets a pattern for Godard, Truffaut and co to follow. In that sense, this is a revolutionary and highly-satisfying film.

What a strange film! Jean Pierre Melville's "Bob le Flambeur", released from 1954 to 1956, is a puzzling result offering two views that couldn't have been more opposite."Bob le Flambeur" is the movie that REALLY introduced the French Nouvelle Vague three years before Truffaut's "400 Blows" and Godard's "Breathless". It paved the way for a totally new cinematic style, less academic, more detached, jump cuts, hand-held camera, long tracking-shot and introspective narration. So despite its advanced age, "Bob" feels like a breath of fresh air on the 50's screens, no stars in the sky but a little wind blowing a new kind of cinematic expression. It's ironic that the Nouvelle Vague is said to have inspired America's New Hollywood movement in the end of the 60's when its most significant director was inspired by American film-noir. Cinema is like life, a series of new beginnings, of new reinventions.OR"Bob le Flambeur" plays in a different league than the close-to-perfect "Army of Shadows", let's face it. Although one can love the narration by Melville, describing Montmartre as a world between sky and earth, heaven and hell, the rest was a display of amateurish acting, and dialogs that didn't ring with the same authenticity as in Melville's later films. The editing, the shooting, the death scenes are not the film's highlights either especially when you take into consideration that the same year, a 28-year old director named Kubrick made a masterfully edited heist film named "The Killing". But while I thought the ending of "The Killing" was weak, "Bob le Flambeur" got better as the narrative progressed.IN FACTThe appreciation of "Bob le Flambeur" depends on the expectations. I, for my part, thought that "Bob le Flambeur" carried a strange bit of greatness, floating somewhere between the two visions I described. Both are true but both don't convey the true nature of the film, which is something innate to Melville's vision of cinema, art and men. In a way, "Bob le Flambeur" carries many aspects of the classic film-noir and as a movie made by a fan, it can even be described as a masterpiece of copy in its recreation of the gangster underworld, yet the fan made a movie that inspired many filmmakers, and reinvented the heist sub-genre. When the copy becomes Art, there's no other way to look at the film as the creation of a man who, despite everything, remained true to his nature.THE SET-UP"Bob le Flambeur" starts with an assemblage of archetypes retreated by Melville's introspective writing. Bob, Robert Duchesnes is the loner, an ex-con who retired from crime before War, a man with principles, whose only flaw is to gamble not only the money he has, but the money he hasn't. That's what "Le Flambeur" is about and "Bob" definitely belongs to another breed. Take his best friend for instance, a cop: Melville knew from his experience in the Resistance that the line between right and wrong, legal and illegal, could sometimes become uncertain. The generation gap is also indirectly highlighted by the flaws of the younger characters: Marc the pimp who'll turn out as an informant, Paolo (Daniel Cauchy) the young protégé who'll reveal the heist to impress the beautiful blonde, the scene-stealing Isabel Corey as Anne, beautiful indeed but definitely not the same caliber of dignity than Yvonne, the older bar owner. Some are defined by their principles or absence of principles, Bob is defined by his nature. Bob is a gambler, he's in a losing streak but believes in winning, in eight: his lucky number. So when he learns from his friend, Rene the ace safe-cracker that Deauville Casino's safe holds 80 millions franc and is more vulnerable at the morning, Bob decides to push his luck.PLACING THE BETSThe heist' preparation is original and impressive, there's a whole sequence when Rene experiments the safe-opening operation with a stethoscope inter-cut with shots of a panting German shepherd. These remarkable displays of perfectionism are quickly undermined by Paolo's blunder and when Anne tells Marc about the heist, we know she ruined everything. And this is when the film catches the viewers off guard, featuring a series of events that elevate the film into a masterpiece of character study. Isabel tells Bob about her mistake and takes one hell of a slap without sobbing, the heist is almost canceled off until Paolo redeems his fault by killing Marc. The heist goes as planned and the gang starts 'working' unknowing that they've been betrayed by the croupier's wife, ironically the only one who didn't belong to the criminal world. Times change to the worst and maybe "Bob le Flambeur" is less about honor among thieves than dishonor among so-called good citizens.CHIPS ARE DOWNAnd when we expect the plan to fail because of the wife, it's Bob himself, the mastermind who orchestrated the heist in a real-life chalkboard, who used the most scientifically accurate method, who ruins the project by simply playing and keeping on his winning streak, causing everyone's demise and Paolo's saddening death. The film plays with all the conventions of a genre, only to provide a classic on its own, getting better after each viewing.The flaws are there but "Bob le Flambeur" shines as a powerful character study about a man who embodies a certain code becoming more and more obsolete, a certain fashion of life, and through gambling, the very attitude that would cause his demise and ironically could save him. Bob didn't play to win but played against the idea of losing, just like Melville shot the film during two long years, despite financial problems, shooting against the idea of not fulfilling his dreams."Bob le Flambeur" is the quintessential Melville film, something about the idea of remaining true to your nature

This is such a great movie, that does about everything right. It's an early French crime caper movie, that obviously helped to set the standards for later movies.It's not like there weren't any movies like this prior to this movie but this is one that has all of the modern genre element type of ingredients in it, that we can still see back in todays movies. It perhaps makes this movie seem as a bit of a formulaic and generic one by todays standards but in the light of when this movie got made, it surely is a greatly original one. And it still really is one that is among the best, regardless of the fact that you probably have seen all of the elements in this movie being handled in later ones and better known ones as well.It has a great story with some equally great characters in it. It's a very rich movie that also manages to capture the right tone, thanks to some fine directing. It has lots of typical crime elements in it, such as an heist, likable 'bad guys' and the cat and mouse game between them and the police.It really is a fine made movie, that got directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The movie has a good look over it, as well as a nice steady pace. The scene's are being build up great and the entire story gets told effectively. It's a great 'how-to' on directing and storytelling. It feels really like a Hollywoodized version of a French movie but in this case that's a good thing. It's also why this also helped to influence movies from Hollywood as well.No reason why to not like this movie.9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Bob le flambeur (1956) **** (out of 4) Outstanding heist film about an old-time gangster and gambler (Roger Duchesne) who finds himself broke when he hears that a casino will have a large sum of cash available for the taking. Even though his friends and even the police warn him against it, he decides to try for one last heist. The French noir genre seems to be growing more and more popular each passing year as film buffs continue to check out new, forgotten or need-to-be rediscovered films from the genre. I came to this one first as I had heard it was one of the greatest and it's somewhat hard to imagine, after seeing it, that anything else could really come close. Everything runs so smoothly that one can't help but be entertained by the events going on and especially the noir-ish acts of always blaming the women for everything that goes wrong. This film comes off so fresh and original that one can't help but imagine what it must have been like in 1956 when this stuff really was ground breaking. One of the many positive aspects is the terrific cinematography that constantly has the film floating around and really giving us a great look at the streets, the casino and various other important things for the plot. The way the music score just blends in so well with the cinematography is certainly "New Wave" but it still looks fresh all these years later. Melville's screenplay also offers up some terrific dialogue that really puts you in the middle of what's going on to the point where you feel as if you really are watching real professionals getting ready to pull off a heist. What also stands out are the performances with Duchesne who is wonderful in the title role. I really loved the laid back approach to the character and felt Duchesne had so much energy building up inside of him you couldn't help but keep your eyes on him and watch every little thing he did. Daniel Cauchy, Andre Garet and Gerard Buhr add nice support and it was fun seeing Howard Vernon in a small role years before his work with Jess Franco. Then we have Isabelle Corey who in my opinion steals the show. According to the IMDb she was only 16 when this was released but she certainly captures the sexuality of the role very well and she sizzles each time she is on the screen. It's certainly easy to see why these guys would fall all over her. I'm still very new to Melville but this here is certainly an impressive start and I look forward to checking out more of his work.