L'Aîné des Ferchaux

I went to go see one of Jean-Pierre Melville's more unpolished films recently, L'aîné des Ferchaux (Magnet of Doom, 1963). The film stock itself had clearly taken some abuse over the years; the first few minutes suffered from severe cepia-damage and there was heavy scratching throughout. Nonetheless, the photography, the mise-en-scène, and guerilla-style documentary style that laces the course of the film, produces some stunning footage.
The film stars Jean-Paul Belmondo (Michel), as a failed amateur boxer, who desperately seeks employment from a brash, rich, and shady banker played by Charles Vanel (M. Ferchaux). The later ends up hiring Michel as a secretary, confidence man, and travel companion as M. Ferchaux flees from French authorities and into the depths of America's southern bayous. Though Melville's delivery was a bit clumsy and underdeveloped the film was extremely rich in ideas, experimentation, aesthetics, and so forth. Unfortunately, the plot is stretched too thin and the film tends to drag just as soon as it picks itself up again. Add the rigid American non-actors, the choppy editing, and numerous plot impossibilities and the movie just falls short of a honed, chef d'oeuvre.
In spite of its faults, there's a lot to appreciate: Melville's sampling New Orleans nightlife with a camera shooting from the open car of a moving vehicle, the documentary style of his footage of empty highway stretches, slick diners, smoky bars and now-vintage motel signs, etc. These all form small parts of a different kind of Americana collage: one seen through the eyes of a European, who not necessarily fascinated with what he sees. The motley assortment of thieving hitchhikers, soldiers spouting racial slurs, ridiculous jukebox dancing, and opportunist bar owners reveals the seedy underbelly of the American Dream--all the firewood that one needs to have a film-noir barbecue in America's deep south. Furthermore, lovers of the director will note the plot's minimalism, the sparse, intimate dialogues as typical Melvillesque themes in-vitro.