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Classe tous risques (1960)

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: 28 Jun 2011 11:01:16
Classe tous risques (1960)

Classe tous risques (1960)[The Criterion Collection #434]
DVD9 | ISO | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:48:36 | 7,85 Gb
Audio: French AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance | France, Italy

After hiding out in Milan for nearly a decade, fugitive gangland chief Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) sneaks back to Paris with his children despite a death sentence hanging over his head. Accompanied by appointed guardian Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo, fresh off his star turn in Breathless) and beset by backstabbing former friends, Abel begins a journey through the postwar Parisian underworld that’s both throat grabbing and soul searching. A character study of a career criminal at the end of his rope, this rugged noir from Claude Sautet (Un coeur en hiver) is a thrilling highlight of sixties French cinema.

A criminal on the run finds going home after a decade is harder than he expects in this drama from French filmmaker Claude Sautet. Gangster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) is wanted for murder in France, and has been living underground in Italy for ten years. Since then, Abel has married Therese (Simone France) and fathered two sons, and he's decided it's time to come home. Abel has planed an elaborate scheme in which he'll steal a fortune to finance his journey and head home with Therese and the boys, but little goes as planned, and he arrives in Paris without his wife and running from the law with two kids in tow. An underworld boss who owes Abel some favors helps him put together a plan to travel across France in an ambulance to avoid suspicion, and recruits a headstrong young gangster, Eric (Jean-Paul Belmondo), to serve as Abel's driver and right-hand-man. En route, Abel tries to settle some old score with criminal associates who betrayed him. Based on a novel by Jose Giovanni, Classe Tous Risques was the first feature film from Sautet, who previously had worked as an assistant director for some of France's most prestigious filmmakers.
Mark Deming, Rovi
IMDB
Criterion
DVDbeaver

Odd one should be able to stumble into "Classe Tous Risques" only by chance; it should be on any "best of film-noir" list, including IMDb's.

Lino Ventura is as good as ever; knowing of his dire, delicate family situation gives extra weight to his almost expressionless face and brief dialogues. Belmondo's restrained performance under Sautet's firm direction only shows what a wonderful actor he could - and should -have been.

"Classe Tous Risques" is utterly mininal, dry and cold, without Melville's artistic scenery, pretty faces and fancy cars. It is almost film-noir meet neo-realism. Davos' few, hard words to his children describing their life of secrecy from there on get a hold on your throat to the end of the film.

The final sentence of the film - a voice-over telling of Davos' end in no more than ten dry, sombre words - leaves you with a hard punch in the stomach.

A true jewel in the great crown of French film-noir.
IMDB Reviewer
Classe tous risques (1960)

It could barely be higher. Eclipsed by the French New Wave's kicking down of established cinematic doors on its initial release in 1960, Claude Sautet's Classe tous risques is a crime film of top caliber starring Lino Ventura as a mob boss in decline. Tiring of the fugitive existence he has dragged his family through for the last decade, he tries to return to Paris, only to discover that the criminal life has moved on without him. With Jean-Paul Belmondo as a young thief ready to help an old pro and the beautiful Sandra Milo as the thief's new girl, the cast is an amazing ensemble, bringing their considerable talent to a genre picture that aspires to be something more. This new Criterion DVD of Classe tous risques has well-chosen extras and a beautiful new transfer, meaning there is no risk at all in adding this disc to your library.
Excerpt from Jamie S. Rich's Review, DVDTalk
Classe tous risques (1960)

Based on a true story, Classe Tous Risques avoids some of the classic traps of the gangster genre. For starters, it's in French. French gangster films have got a flair, a certain something that gives them a stylish edge over other gangster flicks—which usually means we're going to be treated to a 10-minute shot of the main character moodily smoking a cigarette while staring at a caged songbird (thank you, Le Samurai).

Classe tous risques (1960)

Claude Sautet's first film is carefully shot and is very spare. The score rises only when the action does, making itself scarce for the most part. The dialogue is effective and to the point, with Sautet letting the actions of the characters speak for the most part. Ventura and his partner in crime Raymond (Stan Krol), spend more time talking with glances and gestures than verbally. Their caper at the beginning of the film is only made clear to the audience as they enact it.

Classe tous risques (1960)

Sautet does not glamorize the life of a gangster. Davos is always on edge, always looking around the corner. When his back is to the wall, he kills, without hesitation and without remorse. The violence happens so quickly and is over so fast that it more closely mirrors real life. This is not some slow-motion affair, where bullets and explosions dance for the audience. Instead it's all very quick, very simple as Davos and Raymond do just what they need to do and no more. It leaves the viewer breathless. There's only one part where the violence is more deliberate, more drawn out. Davos confronts a man and threatens to shoot him. When the moment finally comes, the camera lingers on the man's face and a gunshot is heard, and then the scene slowly fades. In a movie that does not seem to mind depicting violence, it's an odd bit of shyness that doesn't have much precedent.

Classe tous risques (1960)

Davos's descent is obvious, especially to him, and the fact that he's aware of his own downfall makes it all the more tragic. He can see that he's falling to a point that he can't recover from, and that knowledge is wearing him down. Lino Ventura handles both the physicality of his role and the emotional aspects very well. It's a role that reminded me a great deal of the part he plays in Army of Shadows: an emotionally ragged man who is not proud of what he has become or what he must do.

Davos is set alongside with Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Breathless), a young man following in the same footsteps as Davos. The best scenes in the movie are when the two are together, with the older man doing his best to dissuade the younger from this same fate.

Classe tous risques (1960)

The ending is about as anti-climactic as it can get, with the ending simply written out in a few sentences. I was willing to accept it as a further denouement of the violent lifestyle, that there's no glory, no climactic finale, just a dwindling to the bottom.

Criterion (surprisingly) has done another stellar job with this release. The image is crystal clear, with sharp blacks, an important thing for a film noir to have. The special features give a good look into how Claude Sautet got a hold of the picture and the involvement of Lino Ventura. In short, Criterion did another great job releasing a classic film. Again.
Judge Dylan Charles, DVD Verdict
Classe tous risques (1960)

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