BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

morrison-dylan-fan Talking to a fellow IMDber about the Robert Hossein Film Noir Night Is Not For Sleep,I got given a list of French Film Noir (FFN) recs.Cutting away the FFN's I've seen,I spotted a Fabulous-looking Film Noir that Criterion has put out,which led to me deciding to risk it.The plot:Performing a successful robbery in Italy, Abel Davos and Raymond Naldi decide to escape the police by running off to France. Suspecting that he won't be coming back,Davos decides to make it a family affair,by bringing his wife Thérèse and sons Pierrot and Daniel along.Hiding on a deserted island,the group are shocked when they spot cops landing on the island.During a heavy shoot-out,the cops kill Naldi and Thérèse,just before Abel kills them.Finding himself on his own with the kids,Davos calls fellow gangsters Vintran and Fargier to help him stay undercover,which leads Vintran and Fargier contacting ambulance driver (!)Eric Stark to help with an emergency operation.View on the film:Running out of the tracks,the opening 30 minutes of co-writer/(along with José Giovanni & Pascal Jardin) director Claude Sautet's adaptation of fellow director (and ex-gangster!) Giovanni's book moves at a lightning fast speed,shooting up Film Noir loners, fiery shoot- outs,and the killing of major characters,Coming along with Stark in the ambulance,the writers display a superb eye for when to press the Film Noir gear down on Davos,which gives his touching, bitter-sweet relationship with his kids room to blossom, as the Film Noir crimes Davos committed start to circle round and close in.Going into hiding with Davos,director Claude Sautet & cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet bask in an anxiety-drenched Film Noir mood,where the raw sounds of speeding cars and gun fire keep Davos permanently on edge. Folding other gangsters into Davos tragic family drama,Sautet and Cloquet keep Davos undercover with a Film Noir elegance,with long shadows curling round each of Davos and Stark's hide-outs, until they all choke on Film Noir doom.Fighting at the side of the road,the gorgeous Sandra Milo gives a superb performance as Liliane.Dressed as a hard-edge Punk Rocker,Milo gives Liliane a warm,heart-felt mood,as Liliane gradually finds herself being on Stark's side.Entering as an outsider, Jean-Paul Belmondo gives an excellent performance as Stark,thanks to Belmondo threading Stark with an out of his depth eagerness,with rough Film Noir street fighting smarts.Trying to keep his sons away from seeing his work, Lino Ventura gives a magnificent performance as Abel Davos. Displaying a touching tenderness to the kids,Ventura crushes any aww-shucks sides from Davos with a cold- eyed Film Noir intensity,as Davos and the kids are rushed by Stark to Film Noir A & E.

MartinHafer I've only seen about a half dozen films starring Lino Ventura, but this one seems very much like the others. He plays a laconic criminal--one who is short on words and subdued yet occasionally explosive. Given his quiet persona in such films as ARMY OF SHADOWS and SECOND BREATH, I've noticed that his minimalist style of acting is extremely effective. In other words, because he is so quiet and mannered, when he does bad things you tend to notice. And, like these other films, he also has a very strong, though twisted, moral code.Abel Davos (Ventura) and his partner, Lilane, are both living in Italy and are career criminals. Both grew up in France and eventually had to flea due to their criminal activities. Now in Italy as the film begins, they continue to live the life of thugs and the heat is on to catch them. Oddly, instead of running to yet a third country, they decide to go back to France--even though Davos has been tried and convicted in absentia--and if he's caught it could mean a life in prison or the death penalty. Much of the first third of the film concerns their covert return.Unfortunately for Davos, the return doesn't go perfectly and now it seems as if every cop in France is looking for him. Additionally, the reaction of his old compatriots in crime is not at all what he'd expect. In fact, their tepid response to his return ends up unleashing a series of terrible events towards the end of the film.Along the way, Davos meets and is taken in my a stranger, Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo). Despite Davos seemingly having no friends, Stark and his lady friend try their best to make his return successful. What throws another monkey wrench into this, though, is Davos' two very young sons--what is Davos to do with them--keep them with him in his hiding place? Overall, this is a very good crime film--sort of like French Film Noir. Unlike American Noir, the many French versions I have seen have a more realistic as well as bleak outlook to them. Fatalism reigns supreme, that's for sure! The acting is first-rate (especially from Ventura and Belmondo), the direction very sure and the writing very nice, though I am sure many won't like the ending. It just seems to be tacked on--like an afterthought. I understood why they did it this way, but can also see how it might leave many unsatisfied. As for me, it did leave me a tad flat. Otherwise, an exceptional film.

HEFILM I agree with all the strenghts mentioned in the other reviews but there are some beats missing here that keep it firmly inside the genre of crime drama or film noir and limit it from being a great drama beyond the limits of the "elements" that make up film noir--not to say that the great film noirs aren't/can't/shouldn't be also great dramas, but this one isn't.One other note the music in the film is used sparingly but I would say is used to accentuate the action more frequently than the wife elements.Great set up to this film by the way with an abrupt sort of non ending ending that is either just right or a let down depends.Spoilers follow as to some specifics.The big turn in the story involves the children seeing their mother die, or it should be the big moment. But the children are never shown to react one way or the other. Neither cries, neither asks their father what happened, the kids are good actors and the reactions of the father are I suppose what matters but this is a big misstep. This is the heart of the story and the kids are kept mostly blank in their reaction. They really just have none, in the next scene they look as if nothing happened.In like fashion there is a bond that forms between Belmondo and Ventura's characters. Belmondo says he knew the partner who was killed--but this is never explained and has no impact dramatically on Belmondo or anyone else. The Belmondo romantic subplot also strains credibility though it's convincingly acted. Ventura's character just lets Belmondo involve a total stranger in their escape plan for no reason. He doesn't even comment or seem to notice. Another gap.The ending to the movie, and I won't spoil it, the ending happens off screen with a perfunctory voice over to tell you what happened. I guess this tries to make it feel more true to life, but again like these other missteps leaves drama off screen.What's the point of not dealing with these issues? I don't know, other than maybe the goals of the film were limited to giving the audience what it wants from a crime melodrama--suggest some deeper elements, then move on to ignore them.IN CONCLUSION THEN.Too bad there is much to recommend this film, Ventura is very very good, but too bad it could have been a great drama as well as a crime story--as with IMDb favorite movie of all time THE GODFATHER. This film had potential. Would make for a good remake though if done in the U.S. more problems would probably sink the film, but in the hands of the right director this would be a good remake,though it's doubtful Ventura's performance could be topped.So worth seeing but frustrating as a whole

noralee "Classe tous risques" feels like the granddaddy of "The Sopranos" in mixing the criminal and the domestic, and of the buddy film to feel as contemporary as "Reservoir Dogs."Even as these gangsters are affectionately entangled with wives, children, lovers and parents, they are coldly ruthless, and we are constantly reminded they are, no matter what warm situation we also see them in. They can tousle a kid's hair - and then shoot a threat in cold blood. The key is loyalty, and the male camaraderie is beautifully conveyed, without ethnic or class stereotypes, even as their web of past obligations and pay backs narrows into suspicion and paranoia, as the old gang is in various stages of parole, retirement, out on bail or into new, less profitable ventures. An intense accusation is of sending a stranger to perform an old escape scenario. It is a high point of emotion when a wife is told off that she's not the one the gangster is friends with, while virtually the only time we hear music on the soundtrack is when he recalls his wife.Streetscapes in Italy and France are marvelously used, in blinding daylight to dark water and highways, from the opening set up of a pair of brazen robbers -- who are traveling with one's wife and two kids. Rugged, craggy Lino Ventura captures the screen immediately as the criminal dad. And the second thug is clearly a casually avuncular presence in their lives, as they smoothly coordinate the theft and escape, in cars, buses, on boats and motorcycles, in easy tandem. This is not the cliché crusty old guy softened with the big-eyed orphan; these are their jobs and their families and they intersect in horrific ways.The film pulls no punches in unexpectedly killing off characters, directly and as collateral damage, and challenging our sympathy for them, right through to the unsentimental end, which is probably why there was never an American remake. It seems so fresh that it's not until Jean-Paul Belmondo enters almost a third of the way into the film, looking so insouciant as a young punk, that one realizes that this is from 1960. Sultry Sandra Milo has smart and terrific chemistry with him, from an ambulance to an elevator to a hospital bed.While the Film Forum was showing a new 35 mm print with newly translated subtitles, it was not pristine. The program notes explained that the title refers to a kind of insurance policy and is pun on "tourist class."