Director Willy Rozier speaks with a censor about the movie is wants to make, about a waiter, Robert Berri, who glasses a hood, takes his gun, and begins a criminal rampage with Danièle Roy as his feminine accomplice. Rozier assures the censor that there is a clear moral component to the story that he tells, but to me it looks like the titles on pre-Code gangster movies saying that they want to show the problems, a fig leaf to cover people acting badly, so that the censor will not shut down the production, or worse, forbid its release.
It's not the limited violence that makes this movie like an early version of Bonnie and Clyde, but the ease with which he finds and recruits members of the underworld, convincing them he's the biggest and baddest of them all, based on a love of policiers and an ability to act without hesitation in imposing his will. I did not find this really convincing. Surely it is more likely a competent actor could play both a waiter and a gangster than a waiter could impersonate a gangster.
That said, Rozier has a firm grasp on the visuals, from Berri escaping from the police in a dramatic manner, to the way that Berri's brutality towards Mlle Roy -- always implied, never shown -- has a strong sexual component that shows his domination of her.
It's not the limited violence that makes this movie like an early version of Bonnie and Clyde, but the ease with which he finds and recruits members of the underworld, convincing them he's the biggest and baddest of them all, based on a love of policiers and an ability to act without hesitation in imposing his will. I did not find this really convincing. Surely it is more likely a competent actor could play both a waiter and a gangster than a waiter could impersonate a gangster.
That said, Rozier has a firm grasp on the visuals, from Berri escaping from the police in a dramatic manner, to the way that Berri's brutality towards Mlle Roy -- always implied, never shown -- has a strong sexual component that shows his domination of her.