The Thief of Paris

Recovered and digitized versions of old movies are often a joy for movies fans. We have the opportunity to see films made 40, 50, 60 years ago in conditions similar to those at the premiere and sometimes even in better conditions. The curtain of fog and the degradation of the media are eliminated, which allows us to see the faces of the actors, to hear their voices and the soundtrack clearly, to enjoy costumes and decorations in colors and with refreshed contours. We can enjoy the qualities of the films, but the flaws can also be seen more clearly and the problems highlighted. This is also the case of the film 'Le Voleur' (the English version was titled 'The Thief of Paris') by Louis Malle, made during the period of maximum success and popularity of the director. The recovered version released a few years ago reveals to us as an elegant but old-fashioned film, with a content in which light entertainment is combined with a fringe ideology which I believe was already old-fashioned in 1967 when the film was released, and which seems even less plausible today.

If we look at this film as pure entertainment, we can include it in the category of French films that tried in the 60s and 70s to revive the tradition of police literature sprinkled with justice heroes (like Fantomas) or charming thieves. The latter category also includes Georges Randal, the hero of the film played by Jean-Paul Belmondo - a burglar with a gentleman's costume and manners, who accidentally became a villain, remaining in the profession by vocation. The story of the film is based on a novel by Georges Darien, an anarchist writer and activist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who shrouded his book in enough mystery to suggest that it was an autobiography (which it is not sure it was true).

As an entertainment film, 'Le Voleur' works acceptably. Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was then at his peak, acts with self-assurance and pleasure, anticipating his memorable role in 'Borsalino' three years later. Belmondo is surrounded by charming feminine presences, giving us the opportunity to remember some of the beautiful and talented stars of French cinema of that time. Geneviève Bujold did not impress me too much, instead Marie Dubois and Marlène Jobert are delicious. One performance I cannot skip mentioning is that of Julien Guiomar, as Abbot Felix, a Catholic prelate who knows as much about burglaries and stolen objects as he does about the Bible. The atmosphere of the time and especially the interiors of the bourgeois houses in Paris, Brussels and London are excellently revived. The less successful part of the film seemed to me to be the one in which to the personal motivations of the hero are added social elements, trying to make of the thieves' profession kind of a likeable righteous guild. No matter how repugnant are the bourgeois portrayed in the film, this attempt is not convincing, and not for moralistic reasons, but because even the actors, including Belmondo, fail to portray the characters' dilemmas. However, 'Le Voleur' is a more than acceptable entertainment, and not just for reasons of nostalgia.