The opening bank robbery is being set up as the credits appear on screen. Melville offers us not one but two long robbery sequences and between them these take up a significant amount of the film’s running time. Neither of the two sequences could be described as ‘action-packed’ but they are both very well thought out and, by including every painstaking stage in the procedure, Melville is able to make them gripping. The narrative structure of the film is unusual. Simon (Crenna) runs a Parisian night club but is planning two major robberies – the first to raise money to finance the second. Delon gets top billing but I suspect that Crenna has more screen time and it often feels like he is the focus of the narrative. His adversary is played by the American actor Richard Crenna (dubbed into French for the accent despite being able to speak French) and Cathy, the woman who has a relationship with both men, is played by Catherine Deneuve. Alain Delon (who featured as the criminal in Le samouraï (1967) and Le cercle rouge (1970) for Melville) is this time the cop. Simon (Richard Crenna) left, with Michael Conrad and Riccardo Cucciollaĭirty Money is not a bad title for the film whereas Un flic is arguably misleading. What is now considered a ‘specialised film’ (or still ‘arthouse’ by some) like Un flic, in the 1960s and 1970s appeared in Odeons and ABCs alongside spaghetti Westerns, Italian horror and Scandinavian soft porn. Melville’s polars appeared in the UK when ‘popular’ European films were often dubbed and released through commercial ‘chain’ cinemas. An alternative English title Dirty Money appeared on UK dubbed cinema prints and US DVD releases at a later date. The DVD offers a print in 1.85:1 ratio but IMDb suggests the original was 1.66.1. There is a review by Tony Rayns in the September 1974 issue of Monthly Film Bulletin. The certificate went to Gala, yet the film wasn’t released in the UK until 1974 – in a dubbed version distributed by Columbia-Warner. Researching Un flic, I discovered that it was given a BBFC ‘X’ certificate as The Cop in July 1971 after unspecified cuts. Melville’s crime films – polars in France – had a chequered history in UK distribution. DVD Beaver’s report suggests that this is likely to be an accurate presentation and certainly the tone of the film is suited to a ‘cold’ aesthetic. The Optimum PAL DVD released in 2007 delivers a screen image that seemed a little ‘blue’ and washed out to me. I couldn’t get to any of these screenings in Melville’s centenary year but I have finally managed to get hold of his last film, Un flic from 1972 (he died in 1973). A retrospective of much of his work was shown in New York earlier this year where Keith was able to see three films and in a BFI touring season in the UK a few months later. Jean-Pierre Melville was one of the most distinctive filmmakers of his generation and a major influence on those who followed. Commissaire Edouard Coleman (Alain Delon) and Cathy (Catherine Deneuve)
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