It’s a slightly strange experience watching this Malle film, written by Carrière, two giants of late twentieth century French culture. It has the feel of a project which has been dashed off, lacking any real narrative depth. Except for the fact that the film is so over-extended and the budget was presumably so high that it doesn’t feel as though it could have been a side-project. A period romp set in late nineteenth century Europe (Paris, Brussels, London), Le Voleur is essentially a showcase for Belmondo’s splendid ability to pout. He was one of the great faces of post-war cinema, with features that express everything whilst seemingly doing nothing, a classic cinema actor, like Caine or Monroe or Connery. The film tells the story of how his character, out of revenge, becomes a crack thief, living a glamorous life of crime and high society, pursued by an array of women in fetching dresses, whilst pining for his cousin, played by Genevieve Bujold. There’s the suggestion of an anarchist subtext, a hint of the criminal as society’s Outsider (pace Camus), embodied most clinically in the downbeat final scene where Belmondo is alone on a train, but all in all this feels like window dressing to give a smidgeon of intellectual sauce to what is an otherwise mundane period piece. All of which proves the old adage that the jewel thief directors who can pull off the cursed caper movie genre are few and far between, and even being a cinematic genius doesn’t help.
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