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Lino the Linotype

2022-11-02 Films

125 rue Montmartre

Year: 1959 ▪ 85 mins
Director: Gilles Grangier

Rated: (3.5)
Seen Before: No

Humble newspaper seller Pascal (Lino Ventura) saves a man who jumps into the Seine only to find himself embroiled in a complex crime of passion.

After being manipulated into taking the fall, his inner lion awakens, and a clock seems to be ticking as he tries to clear his name. Will he get out of this or is a miscarriage of justice on the cards? Are we right to believe him anyway? We are tossed from one unreliable character to another, not knowing who to believe.

As psychological thrillers go, the foundations of 125 rue Montmartre are remarkably well laid, but it is ultimately undermined by the odd circumstance that plumbs the limits of disbelief. There is also this niggling doubt about the casting. Robert Hirsch and Jean Desailly deliver sterling supporting performances, and our protagonist is a good fit for his role on paper… but there is no escaping the fact that he is Lino Ventura.

Still, this is an engaging nearly-noir that is well worthy of its recent remaster.

The Prelinger Antidote

2022-09-01 Films

Pickpocket

Year: 1959 ▪ 75 mins
Director: Robert Bresson

Rated: (4.5)
Seen Before: No

Buy from Amazon UK

Robert Bresson raises the art of kleptomania to visual poetry in this film about a young man who chooses thieving on the streets of Paris over an honest-day’s work.

Via minimal editing and incredibly nuanced and subtle direction, we are invited to observe the pickpocket’s successes and failures as he attempts to hone his craft. Psychologically we are toyed with—appalled at the audacity of his crimes, but admiringly complicit when he pulls them off. At one moment we wish him caught while at others we dread the possibility—perhaps because this bad man is actually a very complex man. An arrogant man but also a vulnerable man.

At times, Pickpocket feels like the polar opposite of those social guidance propaganda films from the 1950s. Instead of explaining how to avoid ne’er-do-wells, it gives you tips on how to be one.

It’s not hard to appreciate why censors in some countries were so spooked by it.