Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le Flambeur is a masterpiece of a crime thriller. Kino Lorber has released the highly influential and entertaining film on 4K UHD with a new Scan of the Original Camera Negative and loaded with extras.
The Film
There was no one that did it better than Jean-Pierre Melville. His films were the epitome of cool. Before Martin Scorsese. Before Michael Mann. Before John Woo. Before Christopher Nolan. Before all the other stylists. There was Melville. A man who served in the French Resistance during WW2. A man fascinated by storytelling and influenced by his time during the war and the honor (or lack thereof) between men. The man who made Belmondo and Delon the icons of coolness they are today.
Bob Le Flambeur is an example of the director’s intricate and complex relationship between character, theme, story, plot, and visuals. Melville makes everything look easy when everything he does with Bob Le Flambeur is not. The tale of Bob (Roger Duchesne) a low-level criminal with a panache for gambling and taking in strays. When given the details of a too-good-to-be-true heist that centers around a Deauville Casino, Bob being the man of chance just cannot pass up. As the heist begins to be planned the plans of mice and men as they say… with the Cops in on the score, Bob and his crew take on a race against time. The only problem, Bob is having one of the best nights of his gambling life. Can he win at both and come out unscathed?
Perfect is a word too often thrown about … except when speaking of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville. Bob Le Flambeur is a perfect film in every sense of the word. There is no aspect of the film and filmmaking that is lacking. From the moment we step into the world and our narrator (Melville himself) begins to list facts about Montmartre in Paris everything fits together, until the final perfectly minted piece of dialog, like the clockworks of a Swiss-made timepiece.
Many have used Bob Le Flambeur as a reference point, even if the filmmakers had never heard the film, so many times that it’s become filmic DNA. A super text for crime films though unlike many super text – Bob Le Flambeur is still as good as the day it was released. Still as cold, unrelenting, and beautiful as a clear winter morning in Paris. Still as perfectly realized unmovable from its place in the canon of crime films. In the same way, The Godfather sets the standard for gangster films, Bob Le Flambeur sets the standard for crime thrillers.
The Transfer
The UHD SDR Master by StudioCanal – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative is a black and white marvel of image quality and what is possible with 4K UHD even if the mastering is done in Standard Dynamic. The image is FLAWLESS – nary a scratch or issue with the source material. Flawless in the way that the very best Black and White 4K UHD discs are with clarity even with a nice sheen of grain structure that feels almost three dimensional. This is an exemplary job of what is possible within the 4K format even without HDR encoding.
The Extras
They include the following;
- Audio Commentary by Film Critic Nick Pinkerton
- Diary of a Villain: Documentary by Dominique Maillet
- Theatrical Trailer
The Audio Commentary by Film Critic Nick Pinkerton begins with Pinkerton discussing his bonafides and setting the stage for where Jean-Pierre Melville was in his career. Some of the other details include the fact that the Melville was the narrator that opens the film; the personal history and work of star Roger Duchesne – including his personal role during WW2 and a life of crime post-war; a discussion of Melville’s studio that he built to produce 6 films until it was burned down during the film of Le Samorai; a discussion of the life, times, and persona of Jean Pierre-Melville; the influence of Jules Dasin’s Rafifi on Melville’s film and many others; Melville’s time in the French Resistance during WW2 – and how much it affected his later work including the making of his masterpiece Army of Shadows; the cinematography of Henri Decaë – how he and Melville found each other and their collaboration beyond cinematography, including editing and sound design; a larger discussion of Le Silence de la Mer Melville and Decaë first film and the strange circumstances it was made and released; the reasons why Bob le Flambeur stands above and beyond the other French crime thrillers that are released at the time; what the various French New Wave thought of the film; Melville’s relationship with the French New Wave; the production’s budget, schedule and box office success – a larger discussion of the other films he made and their commercial viability; its success abroad – specifically in the US; a larger discussion of the evolution of Melville’s style and his meticulous nature with shot construction; a larger discussion of the various themes and interests in the crime genre and what Melville’s thoughts on this; a discussion of the various vehicles used in the film – how they relate to Melville’s style and the themes of the piece; a larger discussion through out of the various actors that appear in the film; a larger discussion of the various location that the film takes place in and around; and much more.
Diary of a Villain / Journal D’un Malfrat (25:45) – is an archival documentary by Dominique Maillet from 2017 on the making of Bob Le Flambeur. Beginning with the reasons why Melville was tied to the French New Wave, to the work in the film, to its star and director’s time during WW2 this compact documentary gets to the heart of what makes Bob Le Flambeur and its filmmaker so compelling almost seventy years later. With comments by novelist/historian Thierry Crifo and director Serge Bourguignon.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for Bob Le Flambeur (3:39); Le Doulos (2:25); Touchez Pas Au Grisbi(3:54); Razzia Sur La Chnouf (3:03); Alphaville (1:21)
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber has treated Bob le Flambeur with the respect it deserves. The edition comes with a beautiful transfer and extras! Highest possible recommendation!!!