Max and the Junkmen

Max, an inspector sick of a spotless record, no longer catches criminals; he manufactures them. He slowly plants the idea of a bank robbery among the petty thieves around an old acquaintance and plans to take them in the act. To do it he pays Lily, the girlfriend of one of the men. The film is not interested in the robbery. It is interested in the man who built the trap: Max is not applying the law, he is producing his own idea of justice and spending real lives on it. The film shows him cold, closed and nearly without feeling, which makes the crime more disturbing. The form is seventies French crime: a grey Paris, cafés, suburban shacks and very little music. Sautet does not inflate the drama; he advances it through glances. Claude Sautet directed, from Claude Néron's novel. It did not get the attention it deserved on release and came to be counted among his best work only after a restoration returned it to screens years later. Michel Piccoli plays Max and Romy Schneider plays Lily. Their pairing carried into the director's later films. Who it is for: viewers who like French crime and morally dirty protagonists. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action. The film is almost entirely preparation, and the robbery itself lasts a moment.