#Manhattan grisbi windows

In the following translation I tried to adhere to the original language in French, which is pretty loose, and generally first person present-tense.

#Manhattan grisbi windows

Sometimes he’s just a prideful bruiser parading for his own reflection in the cafe windows of Pigalle.īut enough about Bob. He’s not all creased slacks and sparkling eyes when that happens. Even though he is always thinking fast, and being careful and fastidious, sometimes it all goes South and he snaps, turning into a bully and a macho bastard. The tension that plays out between well-crafted perfectionism and reckless abandon (necessitated by circumstances that spin out of control) is what makes the elegant hero – like Bob – so fascinating. As carefully planned robberies, break-ins, and assassinations are methodically acted out there is always the sense that things will go haywire and that an impromptu wildness is lurking just under the skin.

That is what gives the strangely detached and fetishistic gangsters in his films the ambiance of doom and existential suspense. It is not an “honor among thieves” but rather a sort of bushido, a code, a way of life that cannot be broken no matter what it costs. There is a reticence, a lack of forgiveness, a ritual sense of honor that Melville reveals in all his films. The killer offered to return some of his victim’s personal effects that he still had in his possession. Many years later, after he’d been tried and convicted, the murderer wanted to show some remorse by contacting Melville. In an episode as dramatic as any shoot-em-up film noir, Shatz described how Melville’s brother was murdered by a traveling companion while trying to transport a shipment of cash to the partisans fighting against Franco in the Spanish civil war. Shatz provided a great summary of Melville’s life and career, with an emphasis on the sense of brotherhood that permeates his films. Subsequently, there were some pretty good reviews about Melville, including a really interesting article in the London Review of Books (June 20 2019) by Adam Shatz called “Who Does that for Anyone?” Of the several books on Melville published that year, the best of the lot was Une vie by Antoine de Baecque with its polished design and lavish full-page photos. Rien à perdre, mon ami!Ī few years ago (2017) was Melville’s centennial celebration. An air of lonliness haunts his face, an aging bon-vivant who’s seen it all then again, there is a cynical defiance. It was the pointless circles that he walks, round and round the same streets, with a graceful nod to the bartenders and cafe owners.

It was the way he sauntered around the morning streets of Pigalle after gambling all night. But there was always something classy about Bob. My favorite of his films is definitely Bob le flambeur, though Le Samouraï and Cercle Rouge certainly have their advocates. It’s been a long-term thing for me, this fascination with Melville. This article turned out to be an eight page diary for the month of February 1963, with many short-hand references to the personalities and salons of French cinema at that time. The magazine arrived promptly, fairly reeking of mildew and with pages cracking off the spine, but despite all that I got a real kick out of reading “Cinemois” by Jean Pierre Melville. 75 of Cinema 63 that was up for auction on eBay in France.