Movies

TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI
Jacques Becker’s 1953 portrait of a stylish middle-aged thief named Max (the incomparable Jean Gabin) set the standard for the French underworld crime capers to follow, yet it retains a mellow kick all its own. Subplots slide away fluidly, like the skin of a cocktail onion; the picture starts after Max has made what he hopes will be his last big score. What’s crucial proves to be his friendship with his longtime partner, Riton (René Dary), whose inability to age gracefully or to handle an unsatisfied mistress (the young Jeanne Moreau) puts their giant stash at risk. The movie overflows with comic, melancholy ruminations on mortality and sexual fatigue. When Max invites Riton to a swank secret apartment and lays out their plans along with wine and pâté, the sequence plays like a troubled honeymoon for a platonic male marriage. Yet the movie never falls into macho camp. The action is just as vicious as it has to be, and Becker pulls off one tough-guy surprise after another with masterly soft-shoe storytelling. Best of all, Gabin’s performance is more than a star turn. He reveals how hard it is for a gangster to keep up a “class act.” The co-stars include Lino Ventura in his film début as Max’s nemesis; Jean Weiner’s music does for the harmonica what the score for “The Third Man” did for the zither. In French.—M.S. (Film Forum; starting Sept. 5.