sipang
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2009
- Messages
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RIP Bébel
(Rollneck check. Belt check. Flares check. Loafers check.)
Fashion wise, I can't tell you anything of the sixties, the New Wave or his look in Breathless because Belmondo is inextricably linked in my mind to big burly leather bombers (Chapal?) paired with flared jeans or dress trousers and the occasional fat lapels and heavy patterns tailoring (Smalto) that he wears in his movies of the turn of the 80s. There's an unsalvageable excess to it. And the movies around that time are also getting sillier, his hair is graying, he's over fifty, he's jumping from roofs and hanging from flying helicopters, he makes dad jokes before punching people... And you've got to embrace it all, it's always a bit exaggerated, never totally serious. Much of what made Belmondo cool was in that carefree distance, the knowing smirk, it's all a big joke and the punchline is coming.
Maybe the last icon of a bygone French cinema or even pop culture...(Delon while better known internationally feels like a more distant and divisive figure). Back when TV was still a thing, the ever recurring broadcasts of his 70s/80s actioners pretty much cemented his place in popular culture and across multiple generations as a sort of cross between Steve McQueen/Charles Bronson/Jackie Chan and John McClane's levity all rolled into one. But also with added arthouse cred from his work with serious directors (Melville, Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, Verneuil, Malle etc).
The most famous film from that bunch is probably The Professional (1981) which is a sort of proto-Bourne revenge flick with some geopolitical flourishes to ground things and a very famous Ennio Morricone soundtrack (good thing you can generally count on Morricone even when the films start sucking later on...)
The slightly older Peur sur la Ville (poster^) is a stunt-heavy Dirty Harry-like eurogiallo thing taking place in chilly 1970s Paris. It's directed by Henri Verneuil who has made several great films with Belmondo and is no slouch himself (I... as in Icarus with Yves Montand is a must watch). Also with a Morricone soundtrack.
Ridiculously long trailer w/ music
I'll be honest, quite a bit of his output from that period has aged badly if you're not watching it through the lenses of nostalgia (a most potent drug) and it gets progressively worse as you venture into the 80s... The films are mostly dated vehicles for Belmondo's middleaged-dude-doing-his-own-stunts-and-cracking-jokes shtick.
Anyway, nostalgia aside Belmondo extensive filmography is pretty diverse and has some interesting stuff across all genres. Here's a few things well worth a watch off the top of my head
- Le Doulos (Melville, 1962) - neo-noir, everyone plotting against everyone, great twisty fun
- Léon Morin, Priest (Melville, 1961) - Melville's hot priest film
- Is Paris Burning? - (Clément, 1966) - absolutely stacked cast
- Pierrot le Fou (Godard, 1965) - I'll take this over Breathless
- La Sirène du Mississippi (Truffaut, 1969) - Truffaut's strange Hitchcock homage/pastiche, it works
- The Burglars (Verneuil, 1971) - pretty minor but solid 70s euro cops and robbers, Ennio Morricone again
- Stavisnky (Resnais, 1974) - not a great Resnais but it's one those 70s film with a 20s/30s setting (almost a genre in itself) so there's lots of nice tailoring and generous lapels; all made by Francesco Smalto
- The Body of my Enemy (Verneuil, 1976) - a riff on the Count of Monte Cristo, quintessentially 70s, music, slowmos, it's all there...
- Le Magnifique (Broca, 1973) - sylish James Bond spoof, helicopter stunts, 70s white suits, colored ties etc
(Rollneck check. Belt check. Flares check. Loafers check.)
Fashion wise, I can't tell you anything of the sixties, the New Wave or his look in Breathless because Belmondo is inextricably linked in my mind to big burly leather bombers (Chapal?) paired with flared jeans or dress trousers and the occasional fat lapels and heavy patterns tailoring (Smalto) that he wears in his movies of the turn of the 80s. There's an unsalvageable excess to it. And the movies around that time are also getting sillier, his hair is graying, he's over fifty, he's jumping from roofs and hanging from flying helicopters, he makes dad jokes before punching people... And you've got to embrace it all, it's always a bit exaggerated, never totally serious. Much of what made Belmondo cool was in that carefree distance, the knowing smirk, it's all a big joke and the punchline is coming.
Maybe the last icon of a bygone French cinema or even pop culture...(Delon while better known internationally feels like a more distant and divisive figure). Back when TV was still a thing, the ever recurring broadcasts of his 70s/80s actioners pretty much cemented his place in popular culture and across multiple generations as a sort of cross between Steve McQueen/Charles Bronson/Jackie Chan and John McClane's levity all rolled into one. But also with added arthouse cred from his work with serious directors (Melville, Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, Verneuil, Malle etc).
The most famous film from that bunch is probably The Professional (1981) which is a sort of proto-Bourne revenge flick with some geopolitical flourishes to ground things and a very famous Ennio Morricone soundtrack (good thing you can generally count on Morricone even when the films start sucking later on...)
The slightly older Peur sur la Ville (poster^) is a stunt-heavy Dirty Harry-like eurogiallo thing taking place in chilly 1970s Paris. It's directed by Henri Verneuil who has made several great films with Belmondo and is no slouch himself (I... as in Icarus with Yves Montand is a must watch). Also with a Morricone soundtrack.
Ridiculously long trailer w/ music
I'll be honest, quite a bit of his output from that period has aged badly if you're not watching it through the lenses of nostalgia (a most potent drug) and it gets progressively worse as you venture into the 80s... The films are mostly dated vehicles for Belmondo's middleaged-dude-doing-his-own-stunts-and-cracking-jokes shtick.
Anyway, nostalgia aside Belmondo extensive filmography is pretty diverse and has some interesting stuff across all genres. Here's a few things well worth a watch off the top of my head
- Le Doulos (Melville, 1962) - neo-noir, everyone plotting against everyone, great twisty fun
- Léon Morin, Priest (Melville, 1961) - Melville's hot priest film
- Is Paris Burning? - (Clément, 1966) - absolutely stacked cast
- Pierrot le Fou (Godard, 1965) - I'll take this over Breathless
- La Sirène du Mississippi (Truffaut, 1969) - Truffaut's strange Hitchcock homage/pastiche, it works
- The Burglars (Verneuil, 1971) - pretty minor but solid 70s euro cops and robbers, Ennio Morricone again
- Stavisnky (Resnais, 1974) - not a great Resnais but it's one those 70s film with a 20s/30s setting (almost a genre in itself) so there's lots of nice tailoring and generous lapels; all made by Francesco Smalto
- The Body of my Enemy (Verneuil, 1976) - a riff on the Count of Monte Cristo, quintessentially 70s, music, slowmos, it's all there...
- Le Magnifique (Broca, 1973) - sylish James Bond spoof, helicopter stunts, 70s white suits, colored ties etc
what a loss. 
