Pun Salad

I'm being a total philistine here. The critics and IMDB crowd waxed ecstatic about Le Doulos, but I was much less impressed. Hey, don't go by me: you'll probably like it!

It's a French crime movie, directed by the famed Jean-Pierre Melville. The two main characters, Silien and Faugel, are nobody's sweethearts: Faugel cold-bloodedly murders a fence in the opening scene. Later, Silien knocks Faugel's girlfriend unconcious, ties her up, and tortures her to get her to reveal Faugel's whereabouts. The plot is driven by Faugel's suspicion that Silien is a police informant.

But the plot is unusually twisty; nothing is as it seems, and "what really happened" flashback revelations are postponed as long as possible. Kind of an early version of The Usual Suspects.

So why didn't I like it that much? Probably the lack of sympathetic and interesting characters, and way too many scenes where people are just walking around, driving around, looking all moody. Ho hum.