7/10
Jean-Pierre Melville's fourth film and where, as I have read, the director really starts to define his personal style. This is a noir about a aging gambler gone straight named Bob ("flambeur" means high-roller, basically). His luck and cash running out, he hatches a plan with a friend to rob a casino. In the meantime he meets a young drifter names Anne, with whom his young protege falls enamored. The protege spills the secret of the heist, and Anne inadvertedly relates it to a pimp on Bob's bad side, who is desperate to give the cops any info to get them off his own tail. The cop is on good terms with Bob, and tries to warn him off the scheme before disaster occurs, but it's too late, and the inevitable chain of events is set in motion.
I didn't like this one as much as the only other Melville I've seen, Le Samourai, but it was still enjoyable. The second half drags a bit due to the heist plot being kinda by-the-books (recruiting a team, figuring out how to crack the safe, etc). But there are a couple of fresh elements - Bob, instructing his team, has spraypainted a life-sized floorplan of the casino on an abandoned warfield, and cracking a dummy safe with the aid of soundwaves are two to speak of. Bob as a character is magnetic with his white hair and coldblooded nature and I wish there was more of Anne. I'm definitely looking forward to digging into more Melville.
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