Today, the arrondissement of Montmartre represents the contrast that is modern Paris. At its centre is a thriving tourist mecca – a marketplace, brimming with local artisans sketching the grinning profiles of continental tourists, consumed by the thought of capturing, in their own image, the clichéd essence of a Parisian sojourn.
But 200 metres from the steps of the world’s most romantically-inspiring church, the Sacre-Coeur Basilica – past the hordes of 'la touriste’ – is the quiet section; the silent streets, the thin sidewalks, the ivied walls of a Paris that few tourists venture towards. It is this Montmartre that Jean-Pierre Melville’s utilises so dreamily in his 1955 heist-thriller/love-letter Bob le flambeur (Bob The Gambler).
The impeccably suave Roger Duchesne plays Bob, a successful card-shark and local Montmartre identity, for whom late nights and gambling are a reason for living. Sympathetic to the plight of the alluring but homeless waif Anne (the majestically beautiful Isabelle Corey), Bob takes her under his wing, much to the delight of his son, Paolo (Daniel Cauchy), who soon seduces her. Bob, destitute after an unlucky deal of the deck, learns that the casino in Deauville is ripe for the taking to the tune of 8 million francs. Anne, the angel that so captured his heart, soon proves to be an unwitting accomplice in his downfall; the tragedy of her liaison with Paolo almost too sad to bear.
From this point, Melville tightens the screws and lays on the style in one of the most engrossing and sensual films from the pre-New Wave period of French film-making. Tragically passing away at only 55 due to a heart attack, Melville made immensely influential films; his impact upon a generation of filmmakers is evident in the works of Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol.
Melville’s location work is exquisite – exteriors shot in the streets and featuring the population of Montmartre are full of local flavour and add immeasurably to the sense of time and place so crucial to the ongoing charm of the film and the intricacies of the plot.
Arriving so closely to launch of the New Wave movement, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le flambeur may be unduly forgotten as a piece of influential French cinema. It is not only an engrossing character piece wrapped inside a small-time crim thriller; it is also a celebration of the romance that burns so brightly in the lanes of Montmatre and in hearts of lovers who have ever kissed under its streetlamps.
