Max et les ferrailleurs (1971)

Director:

Claude Sautet

Writers:

Jean-Loup Dabadie (screenplay)
Claude Néron (novel)

Release Date:

February 1971 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Max is a Paris detective, aloof, independently wealthy, and frustrated by gangs of robbers whom he cannot catch...

Plot Keywords:

Prostitute | Plan | Wine Drinking | Paris France | Heist

Cast

Michel Piccoli	...	Max
Romy Schneider	...	Julia Anna Ackermann / 'Lily'
Georges Wilson	...	Le Commissaire
Bernard Fresson	...	Abel Maresco
François Périer	...	Rosinsky
Boby Lapointe	...	Lui Serafino / 'P'tit Lu'
Michel Creton	...	Robert Saidani
Henri-Jacques Huet	...	A. Cyriaque / 'Dromadaire'
Jacques Canselier	...	Jean-Marie Patinet / 'Jean-Jean'
Alain Grellier	...	Guy
Maurice Auzel	...	Antoine Chantoiseau / 'Tony'
Philippe Léotard	...	Losfeld
Robert Favart	...	Loiselle
Dominique Zardi	...	Baraduch
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Albert Augier	...	One of Lily's clients
Betty Beckers
Alain Belard
Jean-Paul Blonday
Danielle Durou	...	Nicole
Léa Gray	...	Madame Saidani
Dany Jacquet
Jack Lenoir
Bernard Musson	...	Sarcastic policeman in canteen

Also Known As:

Il commissario Pelissier (Italy)
Max
Max and the Junkmen (International: English title)
Max and the Scrap-mongers (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

112 min | Argentina:92 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Hong Kong:I | Sweden:11 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Fida Cinematografica

Trivia:

Romy Schneider dubbed her own voice in the German Version of the film, then entitled "Das Mädchen und der Kommissar" (The Girl and the Commissioner).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Kottan ermittelt: Die Einteilung (#1.9)" (1982)

The most sustained piece of Work of Sautet in the seventies.

Few people know it,but Claude Sautet was first a film noir connoisseur.His first work,"classes tout risques" was beating Jean -Pierre Melville at his own game;the follow-up ,"l'arme à gauche" ,is difficult to see nowadays ,but if you can ,do not think twice.

In the seventies,from "les choses de la vie" onwards,Sautet became the cinema de qualité director .I mean it pejoratively.Whereas "les choses de la vie" remains watchable today ,thanks to a sensational editing,the other works such as "Cesar et Rosalie " "Vincent François Paul et les autres" "Mado" are depicting a bourgeois life ,speaking of people "in danger of despair"(Sautet Dixit) but with an optimism that was almost unbearable in the crisis of the seventies.The screenplays became very loose,without any dramatic progression .You can sum up "Cesar et Rosalie" like this :"Rosalie loves Cesar ,but she also loves David.What will become of her ?":everything taking place in desirable mansions ,what a contemporary critic aptly called " un espace Cardin" This is two-bit psychological drama ,with ponderous symbolism,as "Mado" will confirm with its infuriating scene where the cars get boggeddown in the mud .a critic said then "it's the movie that gets bogged down itself.

"Max et les ferrailleurs " is a different matter;by combining the film noir side of the two first opus with what will be developed (in a very gauche way) in the "psychological" future films ,Sautet brings it all back home.It stands out as his most sustained piece of work in the seventies.An absolutely intriguing work,with a beautiful Romy Schneider who keeps the audience waiting,only appearing after 30 minutes.Her relationship with cop Piccoli is very shady,sometimes recalling the Fonda/Sutherland one in Pakula's "Klute" :it really stands comparison with it.A wonderful depiction of a popular milieu,in the suburbs of Paris (Nanterre) ,where the secondary characters seem to be out of a Duvivier or a Clouzot work.But it's finally the Jacques Becker spirit Sautet captures here ,and it's really too bad that,after such an interesting movie,he fell into the trap of the academic cinema de qualité.