Rating of
3/4
Slightly self-indulgent and whimsical
sidehacker - wrote on 09/18/07
Cute, in some ways but that's a good thing especially considering how good Truffaut is at said type of films. This is easily his most technically impressive film. I really don't remember seeing this many jump-cuts in any of his other films. The camera is also a bit more "in your face" or in this case in their faces. There's a lot of really cool shots too, specifically towards the end. In general, I just don't like gangster films and the slight satirical point of view the film has on the violence certainly doesn't support it. I'm not going to say it gets to the point of a Tarantino films but it does often border on being the same sort of annoying smalltalk 'n guns that that dude is so good (or bad) at churning out. You could argue that this film actually creates an opportunity for an actual emotional connection but there's still a lot of silly stuff going on. And it's not as intimate as something like Angst or Man Bites Dog to get away with such humor. I'd like to think that considering how early this is in his career, Truffaut's technical feats can outweigh his (now) banal content.
