I am ashamed. I intend to comment a sequence about a film I consider one of the best french crime flick ever, and directed by the greatest french film makers ever, and I don't remember which actors are in the sequence I want to talk about. I only remember Reggiani in this scene.
It takes place in an attic, at least in an old mansion, where two friends talk to each other in front of a loot: jewelery pieces. One of the two is sitting on a bed, playing with his piece, whilst his pal is standing with the other fellow behind his back. Follow me?
The guy sitting - I am nearly sure Reggiani - goes on playing with the gun and suddenly his friend turns back to face his friend talking to him. A friend who has the gun barrel just point on the standing man's chest. WITH NO INTENT TO KILL HIM. The two friends stop talking and fix one's eyes to each other. No comment. An absolutely terrific moment. Guess what will the sitting man do, whilst seeing his long time pal watching him with the gun pointed in his direction, with the loot besides... The sitting man finally SHOOTS his pal. ONLY ONLY ONLY because he would have NEVER beared to continue living besides his friend with this terrible doubt between the two of them. At least from his pal, who would have never looked his friend in the same way anymore. Unbearable here too.
The absolute perfection to describe the complex manhood friendship that we only could find in Jean-Pierre Melville's films, and Pierre Lesou's novels. Speaking of Lesous' books, in this story, there is an element already present in L'ARDOISE - another film adapted from Lesou. A story where you also find an error of judgment; a man kills another friend of his, whom he suspects to have killed his wife several months or years ago. And, besides, also the scheme of a character who kills another one, because he - again - thinks he deserves it for treason. And he is wrong. Nearly a trade mark in Lesou's stories.
It takes place in an attic, at least in an old mansion, where two friends talk to each other in front of a loot: jewelery pieces. One of the two is sitting on a bed, playing with his piece, whilst his pal is standing with the other fellow behind his back. Follow me?
The guy sitting - I am nearly sure Reggiani - goes on playing with the gun and suddenly his friend turns back to face his friend talking to him. A friend who has the gun barrel just point on the standing man's chest. WITH NO INTENT TO KILL HIM. The two friends stop talking and fix one's eyes to each other. No comment. An absolutely terrific moment. Guess what will the sitting man do, whilst seeing his long time pal watching him with the gun pointed in his direction, with the loot besides... The sitting man finally SHOOTS his pal. ONLY ONLY ONLY because he would have NEVER beared to continue living besides his friend with this terrible doubt between the two of them. At least from his pal, who would have never looked his friend in the same way anymore. Unbearable here too.
The absolute perfection to describe the complex manhood friendship that we only could find in Jean-Pierre Melville's films, and Pierre Lesou's novels. Speaking of Lesous' books, in this story, there is an element already present in L'ARDOISE - another film adapted from Lesou. A story where you also find an error of judgment; a man kills another friend of his, whom he suspects to have killed his wife several months or years ago. And, besides, also the scheme of a character who kills another one, because he - again - thinks he deserves it for treason. And he is wrong. Nearly a trade mark in Lesou's stories.