Le Doulos DVD – Jean Desailly, Jean-Paul Belmondo

A gangster film from Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as the duplicitous Silien, underworld criminal and police informer, and Serge Reggiani as the dogged villain Faugel, Melville creates a twighlit world of ambiguity and betrayal.

The backstabbing criminals in the shadowy underworld of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le doulos have only one guiding principle: Lie or die. A stone-faced Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as enigmatic gangster Silien who may or may not be responsible for squealing on Faugel (Serge Reggiani) just released from the slammer and already involved in what should have been a simple heist. By the end of this brutal twisty and multilayered policier who will be left to trust? Shot and edited with Melville’s trademark cool and featuring masterfully stylized dialogue and performances Le doulos (slang for an informant) is one of the filmmaker’s most gripping crime dramas.