Dirty Money

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don k Deneuve is captivatingly stunning; Delon is handsomely mysterious; Crenna is slyly cunning. Each of the three steals scene after scene; scenes with the three or just two of them always begets tension. The train/helicopter scenes are taut and focused. The movie slowly builds, like "Bolero" ready to explode, but here the explosion is just a pop. On point performance from Crenna throughout and masterful direction through 98.7% of the film, after which it ends as just another movie—but a very good one. [Released as "Un Flic" ("A Cop").] Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review david f There's some good scenes of coolly presented crime in this film. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review paul d Jean-Pierre Melville's Dirty Money, aka Un Flic, has a gritty and realistic surface that holds our attention even when the complex and unrealistic story can't. That is thanks to the film's rich detail, a deliciously slow pace, and Melville's choice to let the images speak, with long silent periods punctuated by brief, even terse dialogue. We willingly suspend our disbelief for both the outrageous coincidence that the Delon, Deneuve and Crenna characters know each other well in civilian life, and for the extended train and helicopter sequences filmed with models. But we can't be so generous with the overall bleak mood and the inscrutable characters. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I regret having watched Melville's final film first, since the culmination of a director's career carries the weight of his previous films and must be evaluated accordingly. Because of this, I look forward to thinking back on this film after I've seen some of his older ones. There's an overwhelming sense of ambivalence hanging over this film, to the point where the ending carries no sense of satisfaction for the commissar character -- and no surprise, considering he destroyed nearly all of his relationships to do so. In fact, beyond the usual noir trope of comparing the gangsters to the cops and showing they aren't so different, Un Flic shows the cops as destructive where the outlaws are creative. They are equally ingenious, but in unraveling the mystery the commissar is leaving behind a trail of corpses and burnt bridges. There is also something here about the criminal death-drive. I admit that I didn't pay close enough attention and missed some key plot points. I remain confused about how the commissar knew that Costa would be coming to the restaurant to kill him, aside from the fact that his associate's name had been placed in the newspaper. Be forewarned that this film won't piece everything together for you, and you'll need to focus. The heist scenes were something to behold, and I quite enjoyed the obsessive attention paid to every technicality. There's a particularly ingenious tactic involving a tape measure and a magnet. My favorite shot in the film was when the commissar is meeting his mistress in a hotel room and jokingly announces she is under arrest. The viewer wants to know who is in the room and is confused to see the camera moving up to the ceiling, until we see the mirror which reflects the characters below. I also found the lack of wordiness compelling, with scenes that typically would involve a lot of shouting or inanities (like the police interrogation and scenes involving the love triangle) instead distilled to intense eye contact. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member A genre piece, nothing outstanding. It passes with low expectations. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Despite a great opening heist scene most of this simply isn't up to Melville's usual standard, and Deneuve is criminally under-used. While far from a disaster it's easily the weakest Melville film I've seen so far. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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