You'd have to go to a museum or art house or special screening to see a film like this, obviously made cheaply, bit with taste and with a purpose. It's fuzzy, grainy, a bit shrill in sound, but surrounded by a jazz score so terrific and only a handful of characters, blending a sort of classic newsreel like feel as a few familiar actors and some not at all known draw out this dark story.
This is the first genuinely new wave film that I recall seeing, this particular print in English even though it's not an American or British film. Jack Klugman and Henry Silva have a single purpose, separately, a mob hit, on Eddie Constantine. The camera pans over blurily in the first scene over Manhattan, and then the film switches after that quickly to wherever Constantine happens to be and the various activities of the three (plus the alluring Elsa Martinelli and Micheline Presle), adding intrigue because the suspense builds.
I don't think this is going to appeal to a lot of people, but for those who get it and appreciate the stylistic approach will find it a masterpiece. For me, it's not a style I'd like over and over, slow much of the time, but increasing in emotions and having that element of mystery because of the negative elements in the photography making the setting seem like something inside a very odd rabbit hole. I can't praise this film based on my frustrations with it, but rate it appropriately for its uniqueness.
This is the first genuinely new wave film that I recall seeing, this particular print in English even though it's not an American or British film. Jack Klugman and Henry Silva have a single purpose, separately, a mob hit, on Eddie Constantine. The camera pans over blurily in the first scene over Manhattan, and then the film switches after that quickly to wherever Constantine happens to be and the various activities of the three (plus the alluring Elsa Martinelli and Micheline Presle), adding intrigue because the suspense builds.
I don't think this is going to appeal to a lot of people, but for those who get it and appreciate the stylistic approach will find it a masterpiece. For me, it's not a style I'd like over and over, slow much of the time, but increasing in emotions and having that element of mystery because of the negative elements in the photography making the setting seem like something inside a very odd rabbit hole. I can't praise this film based on my frustrations with it, but rate it appropriately for its uniqueness.