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You have to see these five films with Jean

2021-09-07T13:26:17.374Z


Jean-Paul Belmondo was a giant of French cinema, he played the filou and charmer just as stylishly as the ice-cold gangster or the action berserk. Here are our favorite Bébel films.


»Eleven o'clock« by Jean-Luc Godard (1965)

Why Godard's enchanting love story »Pierrot le fou« is named in German after a time of day remains a mystery.

After all, everything revolves around leading actor Belmondo and his Pierrot, a Parisian bon vivant who spontaneously leaves the city, child and wife to start a new life with the wild Marianne (Anna Karina).

But that everything revolves around him is in truth Pierrot's great mistake.

He is so busy with himself that he does not even notice how he is losing his wife and, in the end, his life by mistake.

Pierrot is just a

fou

- a fool, and no one else could play him like Belmondo: wonderfully idiot and completely seductive.

Hannah Pilarczyk

"Adventure in Rio" by Philippe de Broca (1964)

When this film title shows up on TV, you are happy weeks in advance like a little boy, even if you are well past fifty.

Just the sheer pleasure of seeing Belmondo racing through the wildly fantasized plot, from Paris to Brasilia and then into the rainforest, always following in the footsteps of James Bond, who had been hugely successful for a number of years but wants to overtake director Philippe de Broca .

His hero is a good-humored wisp, cockier, funnier and more French than 007. Belmondo may have died, but this film is still like a fountain of youth.

Lars-Olav Beier

»The devil with the white vest« by Jean-Pierre Melville (1962)

"In this profession you always end up as a clochard or with a few bullets in your head," says Jean-Paul Belmondo's character once and washes the Bonmont with a whiskey. As a Clochard, that much is certain, this handsome man will not end in a trench coat. And so one follows this most ruthless of the many ruthless characters in the Belmondo filmography into the fatal finale of "The Devil with the White Vest" (original title: "Le doulos"). The tricky, never artificial black and white gangster drama from 1962 comes from the genre grandmaster Jean-Pierre Melville. He lets Belmondo threaten women and betray his buddies and spin intrigues and commit murders with hat and trench. That the gangster turns out to be a moralist in the end - without changing his facial expression - is one of those big,surprising Belmondo moments.

Christian Buss

»Out of breath« by Jean-Luc Godard (1960)

Classic Hollywood cinema has broken up the woman's body into individual parts, says Laura Mulvey's original text on the criticism of the

male gaze

, the male gaze.

But what would cinema be without Belmondo's sensual, voluptuous mouth?

In Godard's cinematic big bang "Out of breath" (original: À bout de souffle "), Belmondo's character, the narrow-gauge thief Michel, is very aware of its effect: at important moments he slowly runs his thumb over his lower lip. The gesture is a Humphrey Bogart quote and auto-erotization, which at the same time electrifies the entire film and ultimately sets the “Nouvelle Vague” going. All thanks to two unforgettable lips.

Hannah Pilarczyk

»The Professional« by Georges Lautner (1981)

From the late 1970s, when he founded his own production company, Jean-Paul Belmondo took on more and more roles in action and police thrillers. »Der Profi«, one of the most successful films in France in 1981, was my first encounter with Belmondo as a moviegoer, you just can't choose. At that time,

Bébel had

his reputation among film critics with his consistent selection of commercial material has already been ruined to such an extent that he was able to shoot and beat Joss Beaumont to his heart's content as a vengeful secret agent.

A cinematic, mediocre, but for the times spectacularly brutal cinema hit, with which Belmondo set action standards for Hollywood successors like Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone in the eighties.

In the memory of the »Profi« (original: »Le Professionnel«), however, Belmondo's smug grin at the tapping of sayings and villains as well as Ennio Morricone's terrific soundtrack remain.

Andreas Borcholte

bor / cbu / hpi / lob

Source: spiegel

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