Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1959)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

As Truffaut stated, this is really more a film about friendship and aging than about gangsters.Jean Gabin is brilliant as Max, the elegant, dignified underworld leader who is growing tired, and wants to retire quietly off his last score. This is a film that lives in the brilliant human details. We never see the big heist itself – it's already over when the film starts. But we do see Gabin brushing his teeth, looking at the bags under his eyes in the mirror, etc. Now it's all about finding a way to close the books on a career, and still protect his best friend and colleague, who becomes a target when other mobsters want to get their hands on the take.The story itself could be called thin, but Becker fills it with so many telling human moments and details that I was touched and involved. Yes, there were a few places where the plot, logic, or motivation holes bugged me just a touch. However, I suspect I'll warm to this even further on a eagerly anticipated second viewing.

Max(Jean Gabin) is a gentleman gangster with a penchant for nice suits and champagne and the brains of the criminal partnership, the other being his long time friend and partner in crime, Riton (René Dary),"the muscle" so to speak of their partnership, together they have just pulled off a substantial heist and are now 50 million francs better off in gold bars. Max likes the easy life of night clubs and restaurants, he isn't greedy and now intends to retire with his fortune, Riton agrees, but he inadvertently tells his young night club dancer girlfriend Josy (Jeanne Moreau)of his large stash of Grisbi(Loot/Swag), she has been two timing him with the much younger and very ambitious crook Angelo, Josy of course informs him and using this knowledge Angelo sets out to take it from Max. Max suspicious that he is being followed confides in Riton that something is about to happen,he also tells his old friend how he discovered Josy's infidelity, Riton is furious and leaves Max's safe haven to take revenge on his younger adversary.Riton ends up in a trap and is kidnapped by Angelo, demanding Max release the gold as ransom. Touchez pas au grisbi isn't so much an action crime flic as it is a no action one, we never get to see the heist or the every day violence of the criminal fraternity, Becker's film is much more about the silences between the crimes and the everyday mundaneness of the criminals life, their conversations, their dining habits etc… this ploy is all the more effective when the film explodes at its climax with the type of violence you would expect of a typical Crime film. A forerunner of Dassin's Rififi or more obviously Melville's Bob Le Flambeur, Touchez pas au Grisbi is a fine film that some might find a little dull, but its romantic vision of Parisien criminal lives is still very intriguing and a welcome alternative to the stereotypical hoods of the genre. Gabin is nothing short of superb as the aging gangster, willing to give up his position and power for the easy life, his relationship with his loyal friend Riton is more like that of a married couple who are still friends after many years together but ultimately wonder why they ever got together, we are only given one glimpse of Max's rage towards his friend in a brief voice over, where Max lets fly at his companions stupidity, that might cost them both their lives and their Grisbi, other than that Max is a cool operator, nothing fazes him, even as the plot thickens and a quick response is required to save Riton's life, Max is just as easy going as he always is, he might just as easily be at home brushing his teeth or folding his pyjamas again, we never quite know what Max is thinking. The understated pate eating scene is superbly orchestrated by Becker ,there is hardly any dialogue but through gestures and eye movements, we learn an awful lot about their relationship…..Touchez pas au Grisbi in the hands of Becker is both elegant and evocative and a pleasure to behold and as French Noir goes its right up there with the best.

You will probably like Grisbi if you remember Paris in the fifties, or love Paris, or are French, or a Francophile, or a movie historian, or a movie critic. The rest of us will see Grisbi as an odd foreign relic of ages past.By the fifties, Hollywood had established Bogart as the star of crime movies, and the Godfather movies were still in the future. This film, as others have pointed out, ignores Hollywood and sets out in its own direction. Unfortunately, that direction is unfamiliar and a bit boring. All the suave style and maneuvering and arrogance and face slapping get a bit tedious as we sit waiting for something interesting to happen.

"Grisbi" is a true classic...... Highly influential French noir/crime thriller/drama....shamefully obscure & undeservedly overlooked until now...Criterion DVD finally released in January....actually kinda ruined my evening..I had planned on watching another movie after this one..but I didn't want to let this one out of my head yet,..it was that good. 1954 Paris sparkles in glorious black & white..Jean Gabin & the whole cast, including a very young & relatively unknown Jeanne Moreau, is wonderful..Jacque Becker's direction is impeccable. The great Jean Gabin stars as Max , an aging gangster, who, along with his longtime friend & partner , Riton , has pulled one last job and intends to retire as soon as it's safe to cash in the millions in gold bullion they have stolen. Max is an anachronism...his style, moral code, honor & ways are caught up in changing times...a theme that fans of some of the best American Westerns will recognize in this film...It'a an absorbing , character-driven story...leading to a lonely highway with guns drawn ..trying to keep from losing everything. Highly recommended.