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good back-story, and good acting

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a film which I had not even heard of before a kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy. It fits under the neo-noir bracket; more specifically it's an example of French noir, of which there seemed to be quite a few released in the 1960's. Its story follows an ex-convict who has just been released from prison; he has a chance encounter with a married Italian woman who invites him back to her flat. Later they go back out drinking but when they return they discover the body of the woman's husband in the apartment, murdered. In typical noir fashion, there are a few surprises yet around the corner.This moody Gallic thriller takes place over the course of one winter night in Paris. Christmas festivities form a backdrop to events but there is little holiday cheer to be found in the story, although a key clue to the mysterious goings on ties in with a seemingly irrelevant Christmas item. That, along with the significant role played by the elevator that services the warehouse like apartment building where most of the key action takes place, forms the bones of the clever narrative. There is a nice gloomy atmosphere to this one which helps create an effective mood, while the twist in the story really is quite unusual and smart. It ensures that this one dovetails into a very satisfying ending and makes you want to watch the movie again to see it unfold with the benefit of foreknowledge.

Feb 2015:With a fellow IMDber having praised the movie highly,I decided that after seeing Michèle Mercier in the satirical Comedy Roaring Years that I would watch this X-Mas Noir.In the last 10 mins of Years,my DVD player started to make weird sounds and blew up!June 2015:After eventually getting hold of a replacement TV,I decided to play this French Noir,only to find that my small TV screen cut all of the subtitles off! Friday the 13th of May 2016: Finally upgrading to a flat screen TV,and deciding to watch 100 French films over 100 days (and also having a re-filling done!),I felt that it was the perfect time to see if this would be the lucky day where I would finally watch the film! The plot-France:Christmas time:Returning home after leaving town 7 years ago with blood on his hands, Robert Herbin does some Christmas shopping.Going for something to eat,Herbin spots a little girl (who is mute) crying.Comforting the girl over Santa visiting soon, Herbin catches the eye of her mum Marthe Dravet. Following them to the cinema, (nothing creepy there!) Herbin holds Dravet's hands.Helping to take Dravet's sleeping child back to her apartment, (which has photos of Dravet's husband)Herbin and Dravet decide to leave the kid in the flat,and go for a night on the town (what caring adults!) Returning to the apartment,the couple unwrap a nasty X-Mas "gift",when Dravet finds that her daughter has disappeared,and Herbin finds Dravet's husband,with a gun in his hand-and a bullet in his head.View on the film:Following the hustle and bustle of last minute X-Mas shopping,co- writer/(along with Frédéric Dard) director Marcel Bluwal & cinematographer André Bac bring the Christmas lights into the Film Noir shade,with frosting windows giving Herbin's return a chilly atmosphere. Lighting up the Christmas lights with fire, Bluwal and Bac display a quality attention to detail,where major clues to Dravet's husband's death/her missing daughter are spread in stylish whip-pans which allows the viewer to pick up lingering clues from the corner of their eyes.Coming back to town, Bluwal breaks Herbin from experiencing any Christmas cheer,by casting a cold industrial Film Noir shadow over him,where shadows of death drape any place he enters,and the only light Herbin sees being from a lift to the gallows.Smartly spending the opening 30 mins setting the Christmas Noir nativity scene,the screenplay by Bluwal & Dard play a tremendous sleight of hand,as Herbin and Dravet brittle Noir exchanges cast a mood of impending doom across the X-Mas good wishes. Unwrapping Herbin's past,the writers superbly open up the true faces of the characters,as jolly Herbin shows the blood on his hands,and the playful Dravet reveals the femme fatale stepping out of the shadows.Desperately trying to get into the spirit of the season, Robert Hossein gives an excellent performance as Herbin,whose attempts to keep his full past hidden leads to Hossein keeping things close to his chest, until Herbin's desire for Dravet leads to Hossein uncovering the Film Noir loner standing in the blood-drenched snow. Secretly holding Herbin's hands in the cinema,the elegant Lea Massari (whose Italian background is joked about in the movie) gives a marvellous performance as Dravet,thanks to Dravet establishing a Christmassy warmth with Herbin when they first meet,which Massari chips away at with wonderful iced femme fatale heels,as Herbin discovers that It's a Wonderful (Film Noir) Life.

"Le Monte-Charge" is a hell of hidden treasure in french film noir. And it's the best opus in the Frederic Dard-Robert Hossein cooperation. How can such a nugget be forgotten for so long time? At last, it's available on DVD and blue-ray. Maybe french films noirs need a complete encyclopedia so we can discover such gems."Le Monte-Charge" offers us a real noir crime drama with a diabolical machination. Without telling the story (already told by the other reviewers), the result is an amazing and insane atmosphere, sharply photographed by not so unknown André Bac ("Le Jour Se Lève") with dazzling views by night. A lot of very strong surprises all through the movie. I was stuck in front of this mirage of despair.The main city where the movie is shot is Asnières (next to the station street with the cinema Alcazar).If you love old fine french noir movies with old settings (french restaurants, cars, stores... ), jump on it and enjoy, you will place your disc next to "Les Diaboliques" by Clouzot.

On a Christmas night, all doesn't seem to be calm and bright.An ex-convict ,Robert Herbin,(Robert Hossein) meets a beautiful Italian married woman Marthe Drévet ,who has got a lot of things to hide and it's the beginning of a film noir,with a lot of suspense and unexpected twists ,unfairly ignored nowadays.The screenwriter was adapted from a Frederic Dard 's novel,famous in France for his "San Antonio " series -not for every taste-,but who also wrote murder mysteries as compelling as these of Boileau-Narcejac (les diaboliques,Vertigo)Robert Hossein had already adapted his "toi le venin" for the screen,and it seems that he is ,much more than Marcel Bluwal,essentially a TV director,the main auteur of the film.The action takes place in an old house ,the first floor of which is a big workshop.A dark , threatening house,where a service elevator(monte-charge)leads to the flat.Marthe takes Robert to her home for a drink;he puts a small bird he bought on the Xmas tree,and they go for a stroll in the streets;when they come back,there's a dead body in the room(the hubby) and most extraordinary thing,the bird has disappeared.And that's only the beginning!The scenes outside the house show Clouzot's and Duvivier's influence,but also Dard's misanthropy:all through the streets,on that Xmas night,there's nothing really divine:except from the very beginning,when a gendarme buys a plane for his child,all we see is people arguing or fighting.And it's during the midnight mass,when a singer breaks into "minuit chrétiens" (o holy night),that the two heroes meet a despicable bourgeois(Maurice Biraud) puffed up with smugness and vulgarity.A lot of surprises are in store for the audience and I wonder why they've never thought of a remake:the screenplay is strong enough to stand the test of time.The performances (Hossein,Biraud and Léa Massari) are first-rate.