Inauguration of the NIGHT AND THE CITY. Four masters of French polar showcase, with the screening of Touchez pas au grisbi by Jacques Becker.

Following the success of the showcases offered by the Mario Gromo Library/Mediatheque over the past months – the tribute to Alain Delon in September, and the one to Romy Schneider in October – we are remaining within the ambit of French cinema for November, in proposing a showcase of films titled NIGHT AND THE CITY by four masters of French polar. The showcase will open with the screening of Grisbi by Jacques Becker.

Polar is a typically French genre, which blends detective elements with ones belonging to noir. Characterised by atmospheres charged with moral ambiguity, it places figures of criminals who are modern anti-heroes at the core of the plot, whose fate appears from the start to be branded by the stigma of defeat. Criminal environments, described with a realism capable of morphing them into a dimension charged with expressive tension, are the backdrop for tragic destinies, in which the social redemption pursued by the protagonists, lured by the sirens of money and easy riches, always coincides ultimately with the impossibility of escaping and with one’s self-destruction. Criminals guided by a code of honour and loyalty which has by now outlived its age, polar protagonists are men whom life has taken, or is about to take, everything away from, leaving them alone with the awareness of their human and existential failure, in a world made of night-time, artificial lights and masks ready to fall after a betrayal or a heist gone wrong.

The showcase is presenting four classic films from this genre, featuring some of the faces that have embodied deluded and nihilist figures of men always on the brink of the chasm of defeat: Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Servais.

All screenings are admission free until full seating capacity is reached, subject to free membership registration to the Library/Mediatheque and presenting an identity document.

Screenings calendar

Monday 6 November, at 3.30 p.m.

Ne touchez pas le grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1954; France, 94’, b/w)

Max is hoping to end his career as a criminal following a final, significant robbery. But the plan is jeopardised by his accomplice Henri’s passion for young dancer Josy. She reveals Max and Henri’s projects to Angelo, a top player within a new and more unscrupulous criminal ring, with no interest in the codes of honour and loyalty of the previous generation. Angelo kidnaps Henri, threatening to kill him if he does not reveal the loot cache. Between money and his friend’s life, Max chooses the former. But nobody will be able to avoid the ensuing bloodbath.

With Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, René Dary, Jeanne Moreau

Monday 13 November, at 3.30 p.m.

Du rififi chez les hommes (Jules Dassin, 1955; France, 98’, b/w)

Tony is a middle-aged gangster who has just emerged from jail, where he has served a five year sentence in lieu of Jo, a married young hunk with a child, whom he considers his pupil and future heir. Tony loses no time in entering the criminality scenario again and he organises a daring robbery against a wealthy jewellery shop with his gang. Organised in an almost scientific way, the robbery is successful. But a rival gang kidnaps Jo’s child and blackmails him, perceiving an opportunity of raising easy money, and forces him to deliver the loot. Tony pursues the kidnappers, to the point of sacrificing his own life in an effort to save the little boy’s.

With Jean Servais, Robert Hossein, Magali Nöel, Carl Möhner

Monday 20 November, at 3.30 p.m.

Classe tous risques (Claude Sautet, 1960; France-Italy, 110’, b/w)

After being sentenced to death in absentia by French justice, Abel Davos lives in Italy with his wife and two children. On trying to get back into France, where his family has returned before him, he gets involved with a few cronies in a shooting with the coastguards. He manages to save himself by the skin of his teeth, and now alone and hedged in by the police, he asks his old accomplices within the Paris criminality for help. The latter send a stranger to aid him, Erik Stark, who turns out to be loyal and understanding with Davos, offering him that friendship that his old partners denied him. Nevertheless, Davos’ escape is doomed to an ending in blood, in a crescendo of crimes and despair.

With Lino Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sandra Milo, Marcel Dalio

Monday 27 November, at 3.30 p.m.

Le doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1963; France-Italy, 108’, b/w)

Just out of jail, Maurice Faugel evens out a score to be settled with Gilbert, by killing him. He goes to see his lover Thérese, and is joined by Silien with the equipment needed for a robbery. However, it fails due to the police intervening, therefore Maurice convinces himself that Siliel, whom he trusted blindly, actually betrayed him. So he thinks of revenging himself, especially when he learns that Thérese has been murdered. In the meantime the police arrests Maurice and leaves Silien free, and it is when Maurice comes out of prison that he learns the truth. Silien killed Thèrese because she was a police informer and retrieved some jewellery that other bandits had stolen from him, eliminating them and letting the blame fall on them for the failed coup. But despite this revelation, the tragic epilogue does not spare the protagonists.

With Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Jean Desailly, René Lefevrè