While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Immortality followed by death, like Parvulesco said. Rumour has it that Melville was dissatisfied with this film. Can't see why. Not long ago I bought the 6 DVD set of his flicks from 1956 – 1972. All masterful, but this is the one I keep coming back to, and I do think I think of it as a pinnacle of his metier.What does Melville mean by invoking "Ambiguity and Derision" over the opening credits ? It's as though he's talking to himself all through the narrative, from beginning to end. The initial scene is one of the most hypnotic I've ever seen. Charged with palpable, palpitating tension, yet at the same time unnervingly surrealistic --- not Dali, more reminiscent of Magritte or Giorgio de Chirico --- it leaves Hitchcock standing in the suspense stakes.The action begins with the Mystery and Melancholy of a Street. It is virtually certainly the Esplanade de la Mer, on France's Atlantic western coastline, abutting the Bay of Biscay, known throughout history as a stormy quarter of the ocean. That esplanade is near St Jean de Monts, between Brest and Bordeaux, and not far from La Roche-sur-Yon. Nowadays there's a golf course just north of St Jean de Monts. The names of these real places are supplied by the cinematography. Realistic surreality is also supplied, by the vast condominium block, presumably only just completed, in 1971, and still unoccupied. Although there was perhaps one inhabited window.The fag-end of the day's weird financial activity in the corner BNP (not the British Nazi Party, of course) bank-shop is bizarre. Who are these glum people executing enigmatic transactions ? Where do they live ? How did they get to be there on what appears to be one of early January's most miserable afternoons ? It's riveting.Skip now to the sequence on which so many have hanged themselves up. This is the insanely planned and impeccably executed robbery from a suitcase, minded on a moving train by Bagman Matthieu, of a large number of plastic packages filled with a powdery white substance. All film plots are completely phony, riddled with holes, but except for here, they fake reality. Melville, however, is deliberately saying that he knows you ought to know it's completely ridiculous: take a good, long, very long look at the dinky toys, the Hornby train set, the plastic manikin. Verfremdungseffekt, as one perceptive commentator puts it. Why ? But then, why not ? It's just a movie. Think about it. Flickering images in two dimensions.What a phenomenal masterpiece this film is. You can see it must be, when you read the numerous failed reviews. Here's something for chewing on: "By disclosing and making obvious the manipulative contrivances and 'fictive' qualities of the medium, the viewer is alienated from any passive acceptance and enjoyment of the action as mere 'entertainment.' Instead, the viewer is forced into a critical, analytical frame of mind that serves to disabuse him of the notion that what he is watching is necessarily an inviolable, self-contained narrative. This effect of making the familiar strange serves a didactic function insofar as it teaches the viewer not to take the style and content for granted, since the medium itself is highly constructed and contingent upon many cultural and economic conditions." Why use five words, when fifty will do ?

Of Jean-Pierre Melville's earlier masterpiece Le Samouri, Roger Ebert described it as "nothing absolutely original... except for the handling of the material." This is certainly true of nearly all of Melville's films, who was fascinated with American crime dramas and noirs, right down to the very essence of the details. His protagonists (or antagonists) of sorts frequently dress as Bogart or other Hollywood lead men with their fedora hats, khaki trench coats complete with smoldering looks and hard-boiled attitudes. Much like Le Cercle Rouge and Bob le Flambeur, Melville obsesses over the details of his characters, far more interested in those than their overall motivations or actions. Indeed, frequently, Melville douses us with very long sequences (in Le Cercle Rouge it is almost 30 minutes) of dialogue-free situations that crank up the tension of the film simply by indulging us with every movement these characters make. Often it is depicting a crime of sorts, such as a jewelery store or bank robbery, which only heightens our interest in what is going to happen next. Because Melville was much more concerned with tension than action, the payoffs of these scenes often feels deflated and a let-down, most notably because American audiences are so used these days to being pummeled with all action and little to no tensional buildup that we sit there waiting for the action that never comes. This is exactly what Melville desires. Overall, this is perhaps the most ambitious of Melville's films and, unfortunately, his last. The lead actors are quite good, especially American star Richard Crenna and French legend of cool Alain Delon. Catherine Deneuve also makes a small appearance, although the film could have benefited greatly had she been used more extensively. Still, Melville is able to wow us simply with his crisp editing, sharp and focused direction and the wonderful cold existential characters we come to expect from his work. Nowadays, Melville is beginning to be recognized further as one of the great French directors and a direct forefront of the French New Wave. Even without that great distinction, he still is an author that needs to be remembered and revisited.

Being Melville my favorite director ever and this his final film, what could I say .I was speechless when I first saw it years ago and even today after several views it still amazes me. Doubtless this was a great ending to his outstanding career, the man who redefined the film noir himself and whose films ,at least half a dozen of them, should be placed among the greatest pieces of film noir ever filmed could not do wrong in his Swang song .And he didn't do wrong indeed, probably it ain't as good as Le Doulous , LeSamurai , Bom Le Flambeur a, Circle Rouge and so on but it comes closer , which by any means does mean that this movie deserves less than a 10 . Initial scene , when the gang arrive to the bank they have planned to rob under the pouring rain , is so beautifully filmed that has become one of my favorite moments in his career.Melville came back once again to his traditional obsessions ( solitude , crime & betrayal, revenge ) and placed them into an amazing heist movie , as a way to explore the human nature.Once again Delon nailed it as the solitary cop and is the prefect vehicle to put face to all these themes. His performance is so chilled out and so classy , in the vein of the silent Jeff Costello , that this is another classic display of acting , no matter whether he plays a thief or a cop you always wanted him to win.You can predict much of the themes and situations you can face here if you've seen Melville's previous films , but nonetheless this doesnñt make them any lessexciting . Plot is pretty basic ,stripped to the very necessary, but what makes the movie are its silences and its ambiances ,totally filled up with hopelessness and despair . Don'texpect much talk here , Melville , unlike Tarantino, can pass on the message through without needing thousands of senseless speeches . In the end whether Delon will catch Crenna didn't seem to matter much, at that point you have come to know and love the characters as they are and how this will end up becomes secundary.

Well, Melville has done it again (or did it again 34 years ago when this movie came out). He has created an excellent cat and mouse story. Another addition to his incomparable body of work. A weary and wise police detective (Alain Delon with his piercing eyes) is solving Paris' serious crimes. Along comes Simon (Richard Crenna) and his band of thieves who exact a couple of daring, nearly perfect crimes. By chance the police get a clue and go about pursuing the criminals. The further into the film we go, the more complex the story becomes. Both men are friends/more than friends with Cathy (the exquisite Catherine Deneuve at her iciest), and they are acquainted with each other. As the police close in on Simon and his band, destroying them in the process, the commissioner goes about his business with a dull matter-of-factness. Tomorrow will bring another crime to solve.This movie is like chevre (goat cheese) rolled in ash. That tart, distinct taste is recognizable anywhere. It may be a bit of an acquired taste, but once drawn in, it awakens and enlivens the taste buds with each consumption. The ash gives it a bit of grit, which blends perfectly with the flavor. 8/10 http://blog.myspace.com/locoformovies