BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1956)

(BOB THE GAMBLER)

From Jean-Pierre Melville, the legendary director of Le Doulos, Le Samouraï, Army of Shadows and Un Flic, comes this classic heist film noir, in the tradition of Rififi. Suffused with wry humor, Bob Le Flambeur melds the toughness of American gangster films with Gallic sophistication to lay the roadmap for the French New Wave. As the neon is extinguished for another dawn, an aging gambler (Roger Duchesne) navigates the treacherous world of pimps, moneymen and naïve associates while plotting one last score—the heist of the Deauville casino. This underworld comedy of manners possesses all the formal beauty, finesse and treacherous allure of green baize. Boasting a beautifully written screenplay by Melville and Auguste Le Breton (Razzia Sur la Chnouf) and stunning black-and-white cinematography by Henri Decaë (The 400 Blows, Purple Noon).