As I write this, my school has called the second “cold day” in a week, with wind chills dipping down into the 30 below region. Sure, you can argue that people were tougher in the old days, but lawyers are tougher today. But I digress. On Monday, I passed the hours watching Antonioni’s La Notte and Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge. The first is an existential mood piece, the second an old fashioned crime drama that seems to prove the old maxim: cool French criminals prefer American cars. ***These still images are courtesy of imcdb.org***
Le Cercle Rouge is your standard suspenseful crime film which, like most foreign crime films, doesn’t end too well for anybody in the cast, which includes such historic French cool guys as Alain Delon, Yves Montand, and the bad guy from A Fistful of Dollars. In general, the message of the film is that there is more honor amongst thieves than there is amongst law enforcers, but no matter. These dudes buy American.
Delon’s protagonist, Corey, enters a Marseilles dealership to buy this used ’66 Fury III that he drives throughout the film. Its non-matching tires are referenced by police investigators, and they also mention that it’s a ’66 or ’67 “Ford, Chevrolet, or Plymouth” by the tire tracks it leaves.
Here’s Corey walking away from the Fury for the final showdown of the film. Yves Montand waits in the passenger seat.
In this scene, some thugs in a ’65 Impala force Delon’s character into the woods, but little do they know that the bad guy from A Fistful of Dollars is just waiting in the trunk to whack them.
Montand’s character, Jansen, is an alcoholic ex-police sharpshooter who drives a ’68 Mercury station wagon. In this scene, he’s about to knock the old rust off, because Corey requires his marksmanship for a heist, but not for the reason one might expect. In an early scene, Jansen’s character suffers from a vivid hallucination that single-handedly and unsettlingly makes the movie worth watching.
Even the director’s personal car is in on the fun. The Mustang fastback featured in the police roadblock above belonged to Jean Pierre Melville. It looks like a ’66, but is sporting wheelcovers from a later Mustang, amber foglights, and fender mounted mirrors much like those on the Mustang II showcar (here). Between this film and Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman, I’m getting the impression that Frenchmen of the ’60s preferred first-generation Mustangs.
Unless, of course, they drove Firebirds. This ’69 Firebird 400 is parked by a curb as a heist scene begins. As with many old foreign films, there is a cornucopia of antique iron to enjoy, and the movies usually are worth watching, too. If you have cabin fever, firing up Hulu Plus might be worth your time.
Excellent movie, I watched it multiple times. I’ve read a review once, stating that the movie might be even “too perfect”. Special, among many other things, is the real-time scene of the whole heist.
The director, Jean-Pierre Melville (named after writer Herman Melville, his real last name was Grumbach), was heavily influenced by American gangster films from the thirties and forties and the American culture in general. That’s the main reason for the choice for American cars.
French gangster films, like the English ones, were and are generally very grim and confronting. The unscrupulous characters, the whole depressive scenery, the bad weather, the violence, the bad endings.
It’s not exactly like watching a contemporary Columbo episode. Who also wore a raincoat, like Melville’s characters. But he drove a Peugeot.
French people.
France.
In France you were considered to be very wealthy if you could afford an imported car, but American cars were No1 in the pecking order, simply because fuel was very expensive in France because it also held your roadtax.
Another film noir that begins with 4 guys robbing a bank in a holiday resort in the pooring rain is called Le Flic, they also drive “an American ”
I mean, if you want to get depressed……
“I mean, if you want to get depressed……”
They can be rather dark. I generally avoid French films for this reason, but every so often a little sunshine finds its way into French cinema. One such ray of hope is a little film called To Be and To Have (“Être et avoir”), 2002. My wife talked me into watching this and it is one of the most delightful films I (a film junkie who has seen a good deal of European cinema) have ever seen.
If you prefer comedy, I would recommend “Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez”. And it features ’65 Mustang so it is not irrelevant for the discussion.
Btw, Goldfinger was filmed roughly at the same time, also featuring ’65 Mustang, but I find characters in the French film much more realistic 🙂
The abuse those cars are receiving is painful to… regard.
Dear Chuck the best french films and the ones that make me laugh and give me a feeling of unbearable lightness, instead of that depressing film noir stuff.
Here are two that have French actor and comedian Louis de Funes in them, maybe you know them maybe not;
The first one is called “Le Corniaud ” and is about an innocent guy travelling in a 1960’s Cadillac through Italy to France, the Cadillac is filled with contrabande; the second one is called “La grande Vadrouille “, it is is about a British Lancaster bomber shot over Paris where the entire crew escape by parachute and are assisted by the French resistance to escape to Vichy France, the liberated part of France.
I always watch la Grande Vadrouille over christmas, I do hope you can find these with English subtitles, they are IMO worth watching, simple relaxing films and Le Corniaud shows a lot of great cars from the sixties.
If you want a laugh for a change, find “Monty Python French subtitled film” on YouTube.
You’ll find American cars in Korean dramas, often driven by rich show-biz & chaebol characters; there have been custom Chevy vans, Mustangs, & Cadillac CTSs.
In Japan, yakuza (mobsters) have been known to drive big American cars such as Cadillacs and Lincolns…
Unless they drove Citroen Ds exclusively, like Delon’s assassin character in Melville’s “Le Samurai”. Allegedly filmed at half speed in places to create an impression of rapid acceleration on playback.
Thanks for introducing Le Cercle Rouge, I’m going to try and find a copy. Any others I should look for while I’m at it?
Hooray snow days!
The Day of the Jackal, 1973.
The Long Good Friday, 1980.
(No Melville movies, BTW)
Ronin, with carchase in 6.9 sensurround. Hehehe
Sexy Beast, much newer film but astonishing gangsterism
The Mesrine films with Vincent Cassel. Again more recent but the French went nuts over this true-life hood biopic double. Ive only seen the second and am waiting for the first to pop up again.
The second half of the first Mesrine film actually takes place in Montréal ca. 1970, logically, American cars abound there. If you’re not a native French speaker, have fun keeping up with the Metropolitan and Québec French at the same time…
A wonderful biopic! I particularly liked the Montréal scenes. Cassel drives around in a Cadillac convertible (late ’60s model if I remember well) among others. There is a great scene with this car in the Arizona desert too. Maybe I shouldn’t say that but although a native French speaker myself I was grateful the lines spoken in Québec French were subtitled… I haven’t been in Canada for a long time…:-). I find Cajun French comparatively easier.
And BTW Aaron is right when he writes that Frenchmen of the’60s preferred 1st generation Mustangs. We still do! Later generations are virtually unknown. But it may have as much do with Louis de Funès (who in 1964 in the 1st episode of the enormously popular “Gendarme de St Tropez” series drives a red Mustang) as with gangster films.
How about the Cajuns’ French ? Like in their fantastic music and in the movie “Southern Comfort”.
Bob le Flambeur, earlier Melville but still great noir.
Bout de Souffle, Rififi, Touche pas au grisbi for more great French noir
Scorpio for more of Delon in similar vein, this time with Burt Lancaster: watchable but not great.
If you want to see a really obscure gangster film, watch the 1985 Dutch / Belgian movie “Wildschut”. The international title is “Stronghold”.
The Belgian police officer thinks he’s an American sheriff, he dresses like one and drives an American car. There’s also a Citroën DS.
Have a look here for all the cars and other vehicles: http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=90325
A 1971 Pontiac Bonneville. Typical Belgian police car….
This picture reminds me of them Duke boys.
Thanks-“Le Cercle Rouge” and all the others are on my list of must sees. Hopefully Netflix has them on DVD. By the way it was in the low 80’s in SW FLA yesterday, got slightly sunburned at the flea market, sorry.
I recall seeing numerous black Escalades in my brief stay in Paris, all used as livery vehicles with uniformed drivers- though small engined S-classes ( a la Princess Diana ) and older Rolls were more prevalent in that capacity. That really surprised me. Now it makes sense, as they are likely ridiculously expensive, and they were only being used by the ultra high end hotels. Lots of room for massive amounts of luggage flown in on Lear Jets.
Just curious, do foreign movies get dubbed in the US ? I sure hope they get English subtitles.
As a kid I watched a lot of movies on German TV-stations. But “Heben Sie die Hände hoch” just doesn’t sound right in an Arizona desert. Now I avoid any dubbed movie, it’s awful and laughable at the same time.
Fortunately, the older ones at least usually have subtitles. However, foreign movies are a pain to track down, due to the clout our domestic film industry has in preventing competition and the lack of interest of Americuns. And stand alone movie rental shops have virtually disappeared, replaced by streaming and Redbox, I really miss them- some of them had interesting and foreign material if independently owned.
Hulu Plus is $7.99 a month to stream, and you can cancel any time…I don’t want to be a commercial for sure, but they have a decent selection of old movies.
Most of the foreign films I watch have subtitles (otherwise I couldn’t watch them. If only I would have taken French in high school!). 🙂
I can’t stand when they’re dubbed either. If you can’t stand reading while watching films, don’t watch foreign films!
I find Delon impossibly handsome. Like a 1971 Buick Estate Wagon. Great piece.
It reminds me of The Man With The Golden Gun. Scaramanga (who is British I believe) is seen driving an AMC Matador, despite the fact that they were not sold in Thailand.
All Thai cop cars were AMCs as well, all LHD. In Thailand.
I’ll have to check these films out,thanks.The cars don’t seem to have the touch parking battle scars I saw on a lot of cars when in France.I’d forgotten what great looking cars those Furys were.The Mercury woody was a good looker,long time woody fan here
Richard Burton’s ‘Villain’ from 1971 is an enjoyable watch. Lots of late 1960’s and early 1970’s British metal featured. Its a special film for me as the central car chase and robbery were filmed in the town I grew up in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsW6BMFssrk
Another one with a good car chase is ‘Robbery’. Not seen the full film, but eagerly awaiting the Blu-Ray release in a few months. It was directed by Peter Yates. Steve McQueen was impressed with the film, and asked him to direct ‘Bullett’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlFAn_8vuig
Sounds like a flick worth checking out. Especially for we former owners of 66 Furies.
Another French movie to mention is “Le Marginal” featuring a car chase with Jean-Paul Belmondo driving a 1967 Mustang in the streets of Paris against a 1976 Plymouth Volare.
http://www.imcdb.org/movie_85900-Le-marginal.html
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x49zwj_course-poursuite-le-marginal_shortfilms
Here’s a great, great Belmondo chase scene from “Le Casse.”
Somewhat related – though not strictly a French movie – the villain in The French Connection drives a Continental Mark III and hides the contraband in the car….
Maybe Friedman chose that car as an inside joke: The producer called Fernando Rey (obviously a Spaniard) “The last of the Continental Guys.”
He was the perfect foil for excitable Popeye Doyle: the suave, cool villain you love to hate.
No American cars in it, but “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs” with Gerard Depardieu is a very funny French film.