Bob Le Flambeur

Watched this movie last night, Bob Le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler), by Jean-Pierre Melville. I think it came out in '55 or '56, begun in '53. See, Melville, like Orson Welles, didn't have that much money, so he would shoot this movie in increments, maybe two or three days' worth, then shut down production for months until he had more. You wouldn't know it from the film, though, as all the actors look the same, unlike Welles' own Othello, which took a while and saw Welles' weight fluctuate. Anyway, this is a rather atmospheric heist film; that is, it's more about atmosphere than the heist itself, which doesn't even really come off. Bob is a compulsive gambler--he even has a slot machine in his closet--and he takes a chance on one big score, and also takes a chance on a wayward, rather hardhearted teenaged slut he wants to save, in a way, though he's never maudlin about it, not even verbal. She's beautiful, by the way, much like Jessica Alba in the face. There's even a bit of nudity, so I guess the French have been open about that forever. Wonderful black-and-white cinematography, good jazzy score, and a very cool leading man in Robert Duchesne, I think his name is. The Criterion Collection version, which you can get from Netflix as I did, has a radio interview with Melville and a video interview with a costar, Jacques Cauchy, who went on from acting to being a producer.

I finished the beats of the outline for The Solution last night, if I didn't mention it, and it's better than I expected. Very, very high on this. Of course, that leaves five or six issues still to write of this thing, and a couple issues to rewrite, but I think it will be fun, invigorating work. May have to wait until Irregular Joe is scripted, though. Slightly less work to do on that, and it will be good to get something DONE. But tonight, some comics reading (SHINING KNIGHT, ATOMIKA, PROJECT: SUPERIOR) and early bed, I hope. I'm worried I'm getting that acid reflux condition, too--just don't feel right in my throat, and I didn't even have anything spicy.