Testing... Testing... 1. 2. 3.

Alright. This being my first post, I suppose I should explain myself. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here. I figure a little review, a little recommendation and most importantly a little pairing. Movies, music, books and beer.

This movie's got it all: Wit, balls, suspense and a musical number that will make you want to rummage through your grandparents album collection. The films intensity parallels that of it's maker. Jules Dassin, a noted figure in the budding era of America's finest film movement: Noir. Like all Film Noir, the protagonists search for success is interrupted by either his own self destructive behavior or he's ratted out by stoolie. Dassin's friend at the time and fellow filmmaker Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet, 1944), was being charged ties to Communism. Dmytryk was blacklisted and became part of the notorious "Hollywood Ten". In his attempts to clear his name Dmytryk named names, and one of those names was Jules Dassin's. Dassin, a quintessential part of the Noir movement with such epics as Brute Force, Theives Highway & The Naked City packed up his bags and moved to Europe to avoid McCarthyism and his own personal accusations, creating in my opinion his coup de grâce. Dassin playing one of the leads as Cesar le Milanais a Greek safe cracker propels this movie from bien to magnifique. The climax of the film is a thirty-minute silent safe-cracking scene that will have you reinventing the way you look at movies.

B&W. French. 1.37:1. 122 min.


What goes good with movies? Beer. Specifically this beer: Kwak. Served in probably the worlds most absurd vessel this Belgian Amber is the perfect accompaniment to a good French gangster film. One sip and you'd run over your own mother to get another.

Alc. Vol. 8%


Finally, music. Since we're in a French speaking kind-of-mood, there's no better pair to these than the swing troubadour himself, Mr. Charles Trenet. Playing with elements of traditional French music and exploring into the then-new American styles of swing and blues. If you've never heard of him, you've heard his music before. About every indie movie to come out within the past 5 years has had his song La Mer in it.

Recommendations: Que Reste-t-il de nos Amours, La Mer, Boum.