Jacques Becker’s chef d’oeuvre, is a fatalistic Zola-esque romance/thriller about two-bit gangsters and their "tarts" in fin de siecle Paris. Told in a swift, unsentimental arc that hasn’t an ounce of fat on it, only the delicious molls carry an extra bit of padding, triumphantly so in the case of Simone Signoret, stunning in her signature role as the golden-haired flame whose allure causes the death of four men. The film was unusually frank about sex for 1952 and still seems so. As a decent schmo who can’t cut & run on a pal, Serge Reggiani makes being a regular guy heroic, but then the entire cast is superb. And such superb character-driven costuming! Becker shows a master’s hand staging the dances and in his deft camera set-ups. And the details! Anyone might have a man snuff out his cigarette before entering church, but watch the hesitation on whether to hold on to the stub or ditch it; and note a country woman who won’t even waste bread crumbs. A masterpiece and with a devastatingly clear-eyed final stroke that’s breathtaking & heartbreaking.
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