Currently touted for remake, Jean-Pierre Melville’s thriller is scarcely improvable: a brilliantly terse, bleakly poetic heist thriller that sees thief Alain Delon and jittery alcoholic ex-cop Yves Montand pulling an audacious jewelstore robbery.
Melville paints a fatalistic world in which actions trump words at every turn, prompting near-silent stretches like the opening escape from police custody and the big steal itself: 20 stunning minutes that riff on Rififi while upping the existential stakes.
Needle-sharp transfer, excellent extras.
DVD Extras:
- Documentary
- Introduction
- Interviews
