Le Doulos (1962) - Random Review #3

Technical information

• Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
• Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Monique Hennessy, Fabienne Dali
• Runtime: 108 min
• Color: Black and White

Short review (spoiler free)

A story about an ex-con trying to rob a house with some friends soon turns into a messy tale of who-rats-who after a police detective is shot dead. Despite having a large cast, this movie actually centers around only one character as he goes around the entire city trying to help a police detective bust a robbery case and help the robber out of prison at the same time. As the movie progresses, in his quest to save his friend, this sole character starts to manipulate everyone around him for it becomes harder and harder to know what is real and what is fabricated by the character. This movie deserves multiple rewatching and making up theories about what is going on is also part of the fun.

Rating: Yellow-Orange/Red

 

Review (heavy spoiler)

You may have noticed that my username of this site is Siliena. I admit this is quite a mouthful name, hard to read and maybe to remember. Why choose such a difficult and strange name anyway?

As you may have guessed, the username is a twist of the name of a character in the movie I’m going to review.

Who is that character? And what makes them so special? Well, this is going to be a long story. A long and rather convoluted story…

This review is going to be a bit different from the last two reviews. As I say, this is a movie with a rather convoluted plot. Le Doulos is much less philosophical than DetectiveStory and The Fire Within. Rather, Le Doulos’s focus is on plot development. I emphasized on how Detective Story and The Fire Within require patience from the viewers with their slow pace. Le Doulos, however, doesn’t bother with the slow bullshit and jumps right into the action in 5 minutes after the credit opening. And then, there is just so much going on that you will risk missing a vital detail if you blink your eyes.

And no, I’m not suggesting that Le Doulos is an exciting action movie with a ton of explosion, car chase and gunfire (though there is some gunfire too). It is more about an intense battle of wit among morally ambiguous men, each having to take the others down in some way to fulfill his need. And each man is also desperate for someone to believe he’s the good guy. The viewers have to pay extra attention to each scene to comprehend what exactly is going on.

In my previous reviews, I analyzed the movies while going over the plot. But here, I’m going to give you a quick rundown on the overall plot first.

First, let’s meet our key players.

The cast

Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani), an ex-con who just got out of prison and needs some cash fast.

Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a friend of Maurice, and also an informer for Inspector Salignari (Daniel Crohem).

Gilbert, an old friend of Maurice.

Jean, Maurice’s accomplice.

Thérèse (Monique Hennessy), Maurice’s new girlfriend.

Inspector Salignari, a police officer, of course.

Fabienne (Fabienne Dali), an old flame of Silien, now the girlfriend of crime boss Nuttheccio.

And finally, Nuttheccio, a crime boss and the owner of a bar.

And let’s not forget this vital information: what is a “doulos”?

IN UNDERWORLD SLANG,
DOULOS MEANS "HAT.

BUT IN THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF POLICE AND CRIMINALS, DOULOS IS ALSO THE NAME GIVEN TO THE ONE WHO WEARS IT...

THE POLICE INFORMER

The story

Our story begins in a somber afternoon. Maurice, just released from prison, comes to visit his old friend Gilbert. Maurice wants to borrow Gilbert some money to temporarily cover up his expense. Maurice also asks Gilbert to lend him his gun because he wants to rob a rich house with his friends. A slip in the tongue reveals that Gilbert is now working for Nuttheccio and Armand and they just robbed a large amount of jewelry without informing Maurice. Maurice then shoots Gilbert with the gun he just borrows.

Maurice makes off with the gun and jewels in time before Nuttheccio and Armand drop in at Gilbert’s house. He then proceeds to bury the money and the jewels under a lamp post.

Maurice returns to Thérèse’s house. There he is visited by Jean and Silien, and they spend some time talking about the planned robbery and some things from the past, as well as preparing the necessary tools. Thérèse comes just as Silien is about to leave and tells Maurice about the overview of the house. She also expresses her concern about Silien’s trustworthiness.

That evening, Maurice and his accomplice Rémy hops onto a train on their way to the rich house they are about to rob. Silien also sets off, but he comes to a telephone boost and calls inspector Salignari.

Meanwhile, Thérèse is chilling out at home when an unexpected visitor comes to see her.

Silien makes an impression to Thérèse that he comes to wait for Maurice. Then suddenly, he beats her unconscious, ties her to a radiator, then demands her to reveal the address of the rich house.

Silien taunting Thérèse after beating her up for information

Maurice and Rémy arrive at the house. They quickly overpower the old man and the dog. Rémy starts drilling the safe while Maurice goes out to guard the house. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that the police have come.

Maurice and Rémy are forced to abandon the loot and run for their life. Inspector Salignari runs after them. Apparently Salignari is the only police detective who knows Maurice, and there is a good chance he can identify Maurice if he is to see his face in the shadow. Unfortunately he is shot dead by Maurice while he was covering a wounded Rémy, but not before shooting back at Maurice in the arm.

Maurice keeps running for a while until he passes out. The last thing he sees is a car stopping beside him.

Maurice wakes up in Jean’s apartment, being treated for his wound by a doctor. Despite being advised to stay in bed for the wound to heal, Maurice, thinking Silien is the one that calls the police over him, decides to start a revenge spree. He draws a map to the lamp post where he buries the money and the jewel earlier and instructs Jean’s wife to give the map to Jean only. In his rage, Maurice doesn’t find it strange that no one knows who drove him to Jean’s house.

Meanwhile, some police detectives stop Silien in the street and escort him to the police station for some questioning. The detectives give Silien a quick rundown of what happened to Salignari and also fill him in about the murder of Gilbert. Apparently Salignari suspected that Maurice killed Gilbert, but now that Salignari is gone, there is no one to identify Maurice, so the detectives have reached a dead-end. They want Silien to help them track down Maurice.

After being threatened to be prosecuted for drug dealing, Silien is forced to comply to the detective’s request. Silien leads the detective to a phone boost and tries calling several bars. Maurice happens to be in one of the bars, reading the news about Thérèse’s mysterious death inside a car. The detectives are able to catch Maurice and they interrogate him about Gilbert’s death, without success.

Meanwhile, Silien silently walks to the lamp post where Maurice hides his money, jewels and gun and digs it up. He then proceeds to head to Nuttheccio’s bar. Nuttheccio is having a meeting with other crime bosses inside the secret room of the bar and his new girlfriend, Fabienne, is waiting outside. Silien quickly approaches her and asks her for “help” in return of her freedom from Nuttheccio.

Silien tries to “help” Fabienne remember the details of the night when Gilbert was murder, as Fabienne was inside the car when Nuttheccio and Armand drove to Gilbert’s house. After some talk back and forth, Fabienne finally “remembers” hearing a gunshot when a train passed by. Silien and Fabienne agree with each other that there was a gunshot inside the house but the sound of the train deafened it, confirming that Nuttheccio and Armand are the murderer of Gilbert.

The two start to conjure a plan off-screen. The next day, Silien walks into Nuttheccio’s bar and into his secret room. He then lay the jewels onto the table and waits patiently for Nuttheccio to come inside, while signaling Fabienne to call Armand to come get the jewels from Nuttheccio. 

The confused Nuttheccio is led to believe that somehow Silien gets hold of the jewels and he is now demanding money from him. Nuttheccio has no choice but to comply to every order of Silien. Silien suddenly shoots Nuttheccio dead right before Armand comes. Silien proceeds to kill Armand when he steps inside the room. He arranges the scene so that it looks like Nuttheccio and Armand kill each other over the jewels and signals Fabienne to call the police.

Afterward, Silien calls Jean and Maurice, who is now in the clear for the murder of Gilbert, over a bar for a talk. He clears up every confusion for Jean and Maurice (and for the viewers). According to him, Thérèse was an informer for the police, and she hooked up with Maurice in order to bust his robbery red-handed. Silien knew that and tried to get the address out of her so that he could rush there to aid Maurice; but he was too late. Silien also didn’t hide the fact that he was also Salignari’s friend. The day Maurice went for the robbery, Silien called Salignari over for dinner, but Salignari refused because he was working on an upcoming robbery, leading Silien to believe Thérèse was the informer. It was Silien who drove Maurice away from the scene. After driving Maurice to a safe place, Silien and Jean rushed to Thérèse as Silien feared she could identify him as the man in the car. The two put Thérèse into the car and drove it into a cliff, causing the death Maurice saw in the newspaper. When Maurice was caught, Silien went around to find Maurice a false passport for his release in vain. He then thought of a plan to frame Nuttheccio and Armand on the death of Gilbert, and he succeeded. As the final nail in to coffin for his loyalty, Silien gives Maurice the money he gets from Nuttheccio’s safe, rendering him with virtually nothing to earn from his deed.

Maurice feels extremely guilty for doubting Silien’s loyalty. After Silien walks out to go home, Maurice receives a phone call. He then rushes out with Jean’s car in extreme distress. Turns out, while in prison, Maurice asked an inmate to kill Silien for ratting him out; and now the inmate is carrying out the contract. Maurice comes into Silien’s house only to be mistaken for Silien and fatally shot. Later, Silien is warned by a dying Maurice about the inmate. A gunfight breaks out with both the inmate and Silien shot dead.

Silien calling Fabienne, telling her he can't come to her house to celebrate their victory

Oh, and when Maurice leaves the bar, the police rush in and escort Jean outside. Apparently Jean’s wife talks too much and reveal to the police how Jean killed Thérèse.

Alright. So that’s the entire story. What a mess with so many faces and details to remember!

During the first minutes of the movie, the viewers are fooled into thinking Maurice is the protagonist of the show. But as time goes on, he starts to be pushed further and further away into a small corner where he is subjected to all kind of misfortune he doesn’t anticipate for. His role slowly diminishes. Instead, a new character slowly emerges to take over Maurice’s place, and soon becomes the main player of the entire show.

As you may have guessed by now, it is none other than Silien.

In fact, though with its twist and turn with all the characters involved, the movie’s entire focus is mostly on Silien. Almost everything happening is the work of this sole character. And Silien is also the most complex character of the entire cast. Le Doulos is a movie with a strong focus on plot development, but it is also a character study of a supposed “doulos”, a character so slick and manipulative that he seems like he knows everything happening in the seemingly chaos of it all.

Serving two masters?

 

The most significant thing viewers can notice about Silien is how morally ambiguous he is. Silien is a good friend of Maurice, but he is also a good friend of Salignari. This bear two questions: how could someone become friends of two enemies with completely different life goal? And when the needs of the two enemies clash, how does Silien ensure his loyalty to both sides? In fact, which side does he even take anyway? He doesn’t even seem to bother by this paradox; in fact, he is completely honest to Maurice about his relationship with Salignari. Telling a criminal that you work for the police is an insane thing you would do.

But despite the conflict, Silien seems to thrive pretty well. He really knows how to ensure the balance of both sides. For Salignari, it’s pretty obvious. He is well-known among the police to be a friend of Salignari. The fact that he bothers to call Salignari the night Maurice robs the house tells something. And for Maurice, brushing aside the convoluted account he provides, we get to see him protect Maurice while being interrogated by the police. He obviously knows Maurice conducts the robbery and the shootout, and he knows Maurice shoots Salignari dead, but he chooses to keep his mouth shut anyway. He even outright tells the detectives that he “doesn’t rat”. And thinking about it, if he isn’t on Maurice’s side, why does he go through so much trouble for an elaborate plan to frame Nuttheccio and Armand, with Jean being able to attest to that? 

Silien is clearly walking on a tightrope here, with Salignari and Maurice being in conflict with each other. He actually gets himself into a situation where both Maurice and the police doubt his loyalty. But what do we know, he manages to keep his composure and carry on with a smile. He believes he is betraying no one and everyone will be happy in the end. And everyone is happy in the end, with every misunderstanding cleared up.

But think about it, does it sound tiring to go around and trying to keep everyone happy that way? After all Silien gets nothing from his effort other than getting Fabienne back, which doesn’t seem to be in his original plan at all. What exactly is driving him that way?

 

I’m just trying to survive

 

Let’s look at the story Silien gives Maurice. Something in this story doesn’t sound right. Does it seem a bit too… convenient that Silien called Salignari, right after Maurice left for the robbery, just to invite him for dinner? He doesn’t even give us any hint why either. Silien is clearly not that airheaded either. Right from his first appearance, he shows himself to be the most perceptive person among Maurice’s friends, knowing things his friends don’t like how Maurice and Jean got drunk and talk about how Maurice’s ex-girlfriend got killed by Gilbert. For someone whose every move is calculated, the very act of calling a police detective knowing too well he is at work is clearly not an impulsive one.

In fact, the act of Silien calling Salignari is the one that sets the entire chain of events in motion. If Thérèse is really the informer like Silien claims, and Silien didn’t make that call, then Maurice would just be caught without Silien knowing so quickly, and Silien wouldn’t go around the city like he does, dragging other people with him. Silien’s story is quite convincing so far if not for this small detail.

And also, through the course of the movie, everyone but Silien is confused. A reason why Silien slowly dominates the show is because no one other than him seem to know what exactly is happening. Things just happen and everyone who isn’t Silien just reacts accordingly. Maurice reacts to being seen by the police by going on his revenge rampage. The police detectives react to Salignari being killed by find Silien. Jean reacts to knowing from Silien that Thérèse is an informer by brutally beats and kills her without much remorse. Fabienne reacts to Silien coming out of the blue by giving him a false testimony. And Nuttheccio is the most confused of them all, reacting by complying to every order of Silien. Silien is single-handedly hosting a one-man show.

But is Silien really in control of it all?

Speaking of Fabienne and Nuttheccio, no one can be less related to the events of the movie as them. Nuttheccio’s only connection with Maurice is the fact that he does business with Gilbert, Maurice’s friend, and Fabienne only happens to be Nuttheccio’s girlfriend and unsatisfied with him. As the movie progresses, the characters become less and less connected to the events at hand. And Silien is only partly responsible for that. The police detectives do not work on Maurice’s robbery nor Nutheccio’s heist, they just have to show up because Salignari died and they have to investigate. Then Silien has to drag Fabienne and Nuttheccio into the mess because, according to his story, there is no other solution.

Nuttheccio doesn't even know why Silien shows up in the first place

Additionally, the movie’s ending is when we get to see Silien truly reacting to something for the first time. Silien has no idea a hitman has been placed on him. All he knows when stepping into his home feeling safe is that his friend Maurice just somehow lies wounded on the floor, and some strange guy just entered his home. This is the first time in the movie when Silien doesn’t know anything about something. So he just reacts to anything he sees. He shoots the screen several times in a burst of rage, then turns back to check on his friend without checking whether the strange guy is completely dead, resulting in him being fatally shot.

A wildfire within

 

Compared to The Fire Within, Le Doulos is much more well-known, hence there have been several theories speculating what exactly happens in the movie, whether Silien’s story is fabricated, or who the real “doulos” is. With all the points listed above, I myself also want to add a theory: Throughout the movie, Silien is both in control and not in control. Maybe he just wants to summon Salignari to the robbery scene and let Maurice escape, maybe after he has got the money; maybe he even plan to drive Maurice away after the robbery. But Salignari arrives too soon and a shootout breaks out. Now Silien is dragged into the mess by the police, and he has to find a way to both get the dust off his shoulder and not damage the friendship he has with both side. Silien is just a victim of circumstances like everyone else, but what sets him apart from the crowd is his ability to remain calm, as long as he knows something about the circumstance he is in (in fact, the only time when he loses his calm is at the ending, when he doesn’t know anything about what happens). And he just has an uncanny ability to use his knowledge to take control of every situation, no matter how sudden it comes to him. Being blackmailed by the police to turn his friend in? He just calls random cafés to give the police the impression that Maurice is nowhere to be found. Maurice gets caught? Go find a false passport for him. Can’t find the passport? Just frame someone else on Gilbert’s death, maybe Nuttheccio, because Fabienne is with Nuttheccio and she is sick of him. Fabienne doesn’t remember hearing any shot? Just tell her how much he cares for her, might as well fake a tantrum along the way too.

Another thing that sets Silien out from the rest is that unlike most characters in the movie, he is extremely determined. In the middle of the mess, he has this fighting spirit to face his situation head-on and establish order in chaos, refusing to let circumstances engulf him. While everyone else holds their hand up the air and calls it quit, from Maurice to the police detectives, from Jean to his wife, from Fabienne to Nuttheccio, Silien holds on and fights to the bitter end, even if he has to drag unrelated people into the mess with him. This is the reason why he slowly rises to the top and becomes the sole player. No one takes control of their circumstances for themselves, so now Silien takes control of theirs.

This theory, however, does have some holes. For example, why does Silien have to beat Thérèse up just for the address of Maurice? Or why does he call Salignari so early on during the heist, if he wants to make sure Maurice escapes?

We know that Silien’s story is not completely true. Silien may only lie about the parts when he was completely alone, with no one close to Maurice to testify against him. But why does he have to lie anyway? After all, Maurice is released from jail, the Gilbert case is solved, and everyone knows Silien worked hard to stay loyal to both Salignari and Maurice. Silien has nothing to fear right?

That brings us to the original, most crucial question of the movie: why does Silien put so much effort into helping both Salignari and Maurice in return for nothing?

And that also brings us to… the last attribution of Silien.

 

The truth has a thousand face

 

In my analysis of The Fire Within, I presented two completely contradicting theories of Alain’s suicide and explained why both theories may be right. In Le Doulos, it’s a completely opposite story. The charm of Le Doulos is that… there is no right answer to the question of “what happens?”

That’s right, there will always be a hole somewhere in the theories. Some reviews of the Internet comes up with theories, but I can still find some holes in their theories. Did Thérèse really rat on Maurice? Why did Silien call Salignari? And, more interestingly, why is Silien so honest about his relationship with Salignari to Maurice?

The answer is, we will never know for sure.

Silien is an interesting character. We both know a lot about him and don’t know anything about him, and so do all other characters. Maurice and Jean both know Silien is a friend of Salignari. The police know Silien is a friend of Maurice. The underworld knows Silien is both a criminal and an informer. Even Thérèse knows Silien is famous in the underworld. Silien just has to walk down the street and everyone can recognize him. He seems like he has nothing to hide.

But when it comes to the most crucial questions like how he could please both the criminals and the police, everyone is dumbfounded.

And that’s what makes Silien so deadly. He tricks people into thinking they know everything about him, sometimes by openly revealing uncomfortable details about his life. But when people really take the time to think about it, they realize they know nothing about him. They don’t know what he is really thinking when he makes his move. They don’t know what motivates him. They don’t know what his next move will be. What they get from him is just an illusion, a false sense of security.

And with that false sense of security, Silien is free to wrap the truth the way it fits him without anyone even noticing. He convinces Jean to believe Thérèse is the informer and gets him to kill her without regret. He tricks Fabienne into forcing a false testimony by convincing her that he is helping an innocent man and that he is also helping her. He forces Nuttheccio to believe his story of him getting the jewels and give money to him. He may even tricks Maurice into believing he totally has him in mind the whole time.

And most people just go along with his version of the truth.

Mostly because of Silien, the entire story of the night becomes a convoluted mess with him constantly babbling with a smile toward the viewers to believe him. The viewers, who is given a chance to see from the viewpoint of every character, begin to question whether Silien is telling the truth. Something just feels so odd to us, but how can we prove him wrong? We just don’t have anything to counteract him, because all we are left with is that story he tells Maurice. We may not want to believe him, but we have to. 

After all, who could suspect a devoted friend who just mourned a friend’s death and raced around the entire city just to set his other friend free in exchange for nothing to have an ulterior motive?

But if Silien is so important to the plot, why does the movie take so long to introduce him? Instead, we get to see Maurice walking for a painstakingly long period of time while the opening credit rolls. Everything during the first minutes of the movie is about Maurice before Silien takes over. I think this is because Maurice, though being treated as another disposable cast member, is also an incredibly important part of the movie. Unlike most characters, Maurice is the one who actually think and question whether everything is really what it seems. He is the only one who doesn’t completely play by the rule Silien sets up for him. He goes outside to guard for his friend during the robbery and sees the police. He sets out to take revenge on Silien after being advised to rest in bed. He orders a hit on Silien while in jail. He constantly asks who rats on him. He pushes and pushes to find out what is really going on. Although he just ends up stumbling upon more questions than answers, he does unravel things that Silien would very much hate to let him know. The result: Silien has to make up some lies here and there in his story.

Maurice also has a strong and rigid attitude toward loyalty. To him, the world is all black-and-white: I will protect you if you are my friend, and if you betray me, you are my enemy. The reason why he pushes so hard for the truth is because everything happens to him is too morally ambiguous and he needs something for his moral standard to lean on. He just has to find out who his friends and enemies are, just like the viewers, who need to find out who the real bad guy is. I think Maurice represents the viewers, embarking on a journey of the ultimate truth. Like the viewers, Maurice has a clear set of moral standard and a strong need for the truth. Maurice’s journey is pretty much the viewers’, throughout the movie. And just like the viewers, Maurice is forced to settle down on Silien’s version of the truth, because there is just no way he can prove it wrong.

The simple question that sends everyone spinning around, even Silien

At the beginning of the movie, when Maurice steps into Gilbert’s house, he sees a mirror, broken at the corner. From the broken mirror, Maurice sees several reflections of his face, foreshadowing the ambiguity he is about to encounter.

And at the end of the movie, after Silien makes a phone call for Fabienne after being shot, he looks up to see a perfectly intact mirror. The mirror shows a perfectly intact face of Silien without any distortion.

Ironically, Maurice, a honest-to-God man, sees a distorted face; while Silien, a more morally ambiguous man, see an intact face. Which version of truth is real? The one Maurice (or the viewers) thinks is real or the one Silien insists us to believe?

And this is the ultimate message the movie is trying to convey. The “truth” is pretty much what we make of it. How are we to be sure Maurice has seen the truth, no matter how much he sticks to the truth? Or how are we to be sure Silien is lying, even though he doesn’t look too honest?

Because, at the end of the day, no one has the complete picture of the real “truth” anyway.

Final thought

Jean-Pierre Melville, a French director with an interest in American cinema, adopted the film-noir formula and, with a distinctive French touch, introduced the genre to the French audience and achieved major success thanks to his deep understanding of film-noir and his creativity. Le Doulos is one of the finer movies of Melville, highlighting the noir features of much of his work.

In a typical film-noir setting, the world is a hopeless place. You either strive to be the strongest man in the fight or you are crushed to death, either by other men or by other unpredictable circumstances. There is certainly no good or bad guy, just strong and weak guy. And there is truly no room for mistakes. In Le Doulos, everyone falls prey to circumstances one way or another. Even Silien, the strongest character, fails to keep his friend in the clear and eventually his life in the end. In that dog-eat-dog world, you don’t expect to survive, you just hope you stay alive for the longest.

Silien knows the rule of the world he lives in, and he embraces it, with all the ambiguity it brings him.

Indeed, being a police informer isn’t the easiest job out there. You have to make sure you blend in the criminal world, but at the same time try not to forget you are on the law’s side, at least to some degree. You can’t get more morally ambiguous than that. When you are involved in two opposing sides, and get to see the logic of both sides, at times you have to wonder which side is the angel and which is the devil.

Or is there any angel here at all?

As Silien has shown us, the truth is what we make of it.