Downloads For You

Le Doulos,The Finger Man(1962)

Rating: 7.9/10 (876 votes)
Runtime: 108 min
Language: French-English Subtitle
Country: France / Italy
Color: Black and White
IMDb Link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054821/

Director:
Jean-Pierre Melville

Cast:
Jean-Paul Belmondo … Silien
Serge Reggiani … Maurice Faugel
Jean Desailly … The Superintendant Clain
René Lefèvre … Gilbert Varnove (as René Lefevre)
Marcel Cuvelier … A police inspector
Philippe March … Jean (as Aimé De March)
Fabienne Dali … Fabienne
Monique Hennessy … Therese
Carl Studer … Kern
Christian Lude … The Doctor
Jacques De Leon … Armand
Jacques Léonard … A police inspector (as Jack Leonard)
Paulette Breil … Anita
Philippe Nahon … Remy
Charles Bayard … Old Man

Description: Le Doulos (English title The Finger Man) is a 1962 French crime film directed by auteur Jean-Pierre Melville, based on a novel by Pierre Lesou. While the film comes before Melville’s masterpieces of the genre, Le Samourai (1967) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970), one can unmistakably observe several of Melville’s trademark techniques in this film.

Plot
Maurice Faugel has just been released from prison when he kills his friend Gilbert Varnove. Maurice then attempts to commit a robbery. The police appear and he tries to run but the police shoot at him and he is wounded. He looses consciousness and awakes in his friend Jean’s apartment. He believes that his friend Silien told the police about his plans because Silien is rumoured to be a police informant. Silien is questioned by the police about the murder of Gilbert and the robbery before the police collect Maurice from a bar where he is reading a newspaper report about his girlfriend, Therese’s death. Therese has been found in her car at the bottom of a quarry. Silien is released and goes to meet his ex-girlfriend Fabienne. With Fabienne’s help, Silien frames someone else for the murder and robbery, leaving Maurice in the clear. Maurice is released from prison and discovers that it was Therese who told the police about the robbery and Silien and Jean who killed her. Maurice reveals that he killed Gilbert because Gilbert killed his girlfriend Arlette four years ago to keep her quiet. Silien returns home but once Silien has left, Maurice remembers that he hired a man to kill Silien because he thought he had betrayed him and chases after him.

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/77849774/LE.DOULOS.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77849843/LE.DOULOS.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77857095/LE.DOULOS.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77857098/LE.DOULOS.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77860174/LE.DOULOS.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77866332/LE.DOULOS.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77866369/LE.DOULOS.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/77862577/LE.DOULOS.part8.rar

Rar Password: None

Visual Themes
Melville’s films balance a fine line between genres – while Le Doulos could be seen as a simple gangster film, Melville has intricately interwoven critical elements of classic film noir, drama and French new wave filmmaking. Melville even incorporates vague, but noticeable, elements of that could later be called “magical realism.” Several sets are manipulated to intensify the feelings of the characters. For example: in a wide-shot, a character stands under the light of a single lamppost in the middle of a field, wrapped in a heavy mist.
Of course, as a film-noir, Le Doulos boasts an incredible use of shadows, also almost to the point of impossibility. In some interior scenes, it seems as though the light is coming from so many odd directions that such a room could not be possible – however, this does not appear to be an error on part of the cinematography, rather an intentional decision made by Melville.
Melville focuses intensely on those staples of the crime film, trench coats and hats, almost to the point of fetishism. Added to the pseudo-surreal cinematography mentioned above, Melville’s world, in which literally every man is garbed in a buttoned and fastened trench coat and donned with a hat seems to be at a disconnect with our own. This similar wardrobe sometimes also has the effect of causing the audience to lose track of which character is which – sometimes, this has a consequence on the narrative, while other times it does not.

Contextual Themes
Obvious themes explored in Le Doulos are those of friendship and loyalty among men. Several characters are manipulated, backstabbed and framed for crimes they did not commit. Murder is, of course, prevalent as well. However, these are only broad themes that assist the film’s storytelling, while certain other, more socially implicating themes, are subtly tucked away.
Traditional to several Melville films is the notion that the French police force of the time was fallible to the point of exploitation based on patterns of officials’ behavior. In Le Samourai, the main character plans around the assumed reaction of the police force. However, Melville reassures us that all hope is not lost: in each film, the police force saves face by employing the services of an impeccably clever detective character. Here, the police superintendent notices such subtleties as the way in which one man’s trench coat had been wrinkled – from this, it was evident that the man had been physically held up after being shot while attempting to escape the police. This is evidence that there was an accomplice, mysteriously absent from the crime scene.
Another theme consistent with other Melville films is the imperfections of subjectivity in memory, particularly when under duress. In one scene, Silien pressures a woman into convincing herself that she witnessed something she did not. In Le Samourai, during a police investigation, witnesses are led to doubt what it is they had indeed seen.
Female characters are used to a greater extent in this film than in some of Melville’s others. Here there are three women, all of whom function as extensions of the men. One woman is manipulated by Silien to agree to attest to a fabricated incident. Another woman serves as a maternal figure, while the final one is simply an object of desire to be obtained, though also a possessor of critical knowledge. These distinctly different types of women are all displayed in negative connotations, and indeed Melville has gained a reputation for being a bit of a misogynist.