Drop The Fusil and Raise Your Hands
Classe Tous Risque has two more nights at the Northwest Film Forum, Wednesday and Thursday, so get on it if you're gonna. It's French film noir meets neo-realism. No, wait, don't run. Um, it's a documentary-style black-and-white film -- crap. A tense drama about the downfall of a legendary gangster? Damn, this is hard.
Sautet (director of Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud) made the film in 1960, to chronicle what he saw as the end of the "golden" gangster era. Lino Ventura is Abel Davos, modeled on an actual post-war gangster, and Jean-Paul Belmondo (in his first role after Breathless) plays Eric Stark, a young lone wolf who becomes Abel's compatriot. (Priceless line: "The one good thing about me is my left.")
The neo-realism rears its head early in the lack of any romanticism, the criminals' desperation in pulling off pathetic heists, the fact that the legendary Abel has two little boys to look after. "Class tous risque" is an insurance classification -- here it's a statement about the odds stacked against Abel. 'Cause he's a GANGSTER! you say. But not precisely -- it's more because Abel won't back down. We know! It's heavy. Now go see the movie.
