Jean-Pierre Melville's BOB LE FLAMBEUR Plays at Film Forum This Month

STILL: JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE’S BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1956). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

Now through April 18th, Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 French noir LE SAMOURAÏ plays at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration, created from the original 35mm negative by Pathé and The Criterion Collection at L’Immagine Ritrovata. GME distributes Melville’s earlier gangster film, BOB LE FLAMBEUR, on Blu-Ray, DVD, and DSL to the North American university market.

In LE SAMOURAÏ, Alain Delon plays a professional killer whose unraveling alibi leads to his downfall. Melville described the film as an “analysis of a schizophrenic by a paranoiac,” and it is widely regarded as a high-water mark of the French New Wave. Critic Bilge Ebiri dubbed it a “masterpiece” that “revolutionized the action genre,” and the film has exerted an outsize influence on a number of filmmakers, like David Fincher (see THE KILLER), Nicolas Winding Refn (see DRIVE), and Jim Jarmusch (see GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI), as well as Madonna, whose 2012 song “Beautiful Killer” directly references Delon and the film. John Woo considers LE SAMOURAÏ to be the “closest thing to a perfect movie I have ever seen.”

DVD COVER OF BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1956). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

Melville achieved success as a filmmaker long before LE SAMOURAÏ, however, with the 1956 proto-French New Wave noir BOB LE FLAMBEUR (translation: BOB THE GAMBLER). The film — which follows an aging safecracker and compulsive gambler named Bob (Roger Duchesne) who navigates the treacherous world of pimps, moneymen and naïve associates while plotting one last score — was innovative for its use of jump cuts, handheld camerawork, and on-location shooting. These stylistic choices would characterize later nouvelle vague opuses like BREATHLESS and CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 and set the tone for much of the movement in the 1960s. Following three well-received features that Melville made between 1949 and 1953, BOB LE FLAMBEUR was considered his breakthrough work and established him as a significant figure in world cinema.

GME’s release of BOB LE FLAMBEUR includes the 25-minute documentary DIARY OF A VILLAIN, which chronicles the production of the film and its enduring legacy, as well as a narration track and theatrical trailers. For additional information about ordering this title, please visit the ordering info page on our website.