Le doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962)
I think I like neo-noir more than the actual thing. I guess this is right on the verge of being an actual noir in terms of era, but it doesn't fit the traditional definition by virtue of being French. It's more than that though: neo-noir, or at least the ones that I like, are all about mood. A mood we certainly associate with classic noir, but that is never as polished and overwhelming as it is in later films such as this one. A key element there is the score: actual noirs have classic Hollywood scores, maybe a bit jazzier, maybe a bit darker, but still. The score here is a mix of that (specifically made me think of Herrmann's Hitchcockian scores at times) and actual jazz, the kind you could hear in Parisian cafés in this era because of African-American jazz players who briefly emigrated there. There's a scene near the end which takes place in a small bar - in which our protagonists look like they've essentially succeeded - and there's a pianist playing in the background. He's not playing anything particularly ominous, but it adds so much to the scene by somehow heightening it.
The plotting here feels like a nod to the complexity of some noir plots, while still being pretty easy to follow. The way Melville uses ellipses is masterful: the first few times you go with it because that's just part of the cinematic language, but at some point you begin to understand that he is delibaretly concealing key information, without Melville having to do anything in particular, and it becomes this playful, Hitchcockian interaction with the audience without any break in the film's reality. The way it morphs from that to a tragedy is also quite remarkable, and the ending, while in some ways pretty typical and expected for a noir, is excellent.
And then there's the performances. Reggiani is excellent as this ex-con who never recovered from his time in prison and can't trust anyone anymore, while Belmondo is at his most charismatic here, which is saying something. The whole films kind of feels like Melville saw A bout de souffle/Breathless and went "No Jean-Luc, I'll show you how to make an hommage to American film-noir, and how to make Belmondo as iconic as Bogart", and succeeded*, as illustrated by the scene in which Belmondo seduces a rival criminal's wife just by spending five minutes with her and being Belmondo, essentially. It shouldn't work, but it does. Piccoli shows up in a small scene (as said rival criminal) and that's another great scene, as he clearly realizes what is about to happen and is torn between acceptance and bargaining.
Melville has the patience to make incredible thriller setpieces and make them memorable, which is essential for the very first scene in the film, as understanding exactly how it went down ends up being pretty important. Same with the burglary. Without the clarity of action you get from these scenes, the twists and turns of the plot would feel confounding and artificial. Lesser filmmakers make these things feel like they tricked you unfairly: masters like Melville and Hitchcock make it seem like you should have known all along.
9/10
*To be clear, A bout de souffle does a bunch of other interesting things and Belmondo is also excellent in it, but this specific vector of it (the love letter to American noir) is what I'm talking about.