“Almost every frame looks smoky and luscious enough to be a nation to which lovers and young dreamers might hope one day to emigrate. It’s a film that will never wither, always inspire.”
Screening in tribute to Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933 - 2021)
Petty thug Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a wannabe Humphrey Bogart. After impulsively killing un flic he turns to his American girlfriend, Patricia (Jean Seberg), for help while he tries to pull together enough money to get the pair to Italy…
What sounds utterly generic helped launch the French New Wave with its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent stars Belmondo and Seberg (both immortalised in the image of him with fag and trilby, her in the International Herald Tribune t-shirt).
Goddard drew on his love of American pulp cinema to make something that’s uniquely French. Not only one of the most influential films of all time but one that’s a joy to watch whether you’ve seen never seen it before or have watched it many times over.
