Alternative Christmas movie watchlists have been going strong for years now and there's no shortage of resources to turn towards if you're looking for action, horror, thriller, or noir films with at least a tinge of holiday spirit. While I'm not the world's largest holiday movie enthusiast, I did think it would be fun to offer a list that I think you're only likely to find on this blog: French Christmas Crime Films! The degree of holiday trappings varies amongst these four films but they all take place firmly within the season so it's more than just a nod towards Christmas during a narrative that covers years of a character's life. However you celebrate (or don't) during the winter months, why not plunk down and enjoy some murder, existential angst, and the dark heart of the holidays.
Un Flic (1972) - If you are somehow unfamiliar with the work of Jean-Pierre Melville, I don't know that I'd recommend starting with his final film. However, if you have seen his other Delon films and either haven't seen Flic or haven't seen it in many years - this could be a great chance to catch up to it. Opening with a dreary seaside robbery and proceeding through a grim, wintry Paris - Flic presents a blue/grey modernist pallor that stands in stark contrast to the normally vibrant holiday colors. It's an incredibly stylish and stylized effort from Melville and one that's attracted admiration and dismissal in equal measure. Though Melville's use of rear projection, painted backdrops, and anachronistic details doesn't bother most viewers, his very obvious use of scale models during an otherwise tense railway heist sequence appears to be a step too far for many. For my own part, I can't fully subscribe to Melville's apologists for this artifice and yet it also doesn't prevent me from enjoying the film immensely. Flic is still a marvelous immersion into Melville's themes and symbols and I think it's a fascinating piece of hardboiled fiction even if it doesn't rise to the level of his greatest work. Delon is at his icy best before he started to become a caricature of his own cinematic persona and Richard Crenna (most recognizable to modern audiences as Col. Trautman from the Rambo films) performs admirably as his foil. Flic also stars Catherine Deneuve in a supporting role, but one that's uncharacteristically developed for female roles in Melville's filmography. There isn't an abundance of Christmas references in the film, but it is present particularly in Delon's many long drives through the city.
Who Killed Santa Claus? (1941) - Who Killed Santa Claus spends its first 45 minutes detailing the characters and intrigue inhabiting the French mountain town in which it is set: the local schoolmaster (an avowed atheist) is in love with the daughter of the local globe maker who also plays the role of Father Christmas for the town children every year. The globe maker's daughter lives in a world of her own fantasies and faerie stories, largely indifferent towards the schoolmaster's advances. There's a widow who wanders the town searching for her long lost cat. The local nobleman has returned from a years-long global journey during which he might have contracted leprosy? Most ominously, there's an shadowy figure roaming the streets at night who may be looking to steal the priceless jewel that hangs on the church nativity scene. Finally, there are the town children including one depressed little boy who has a bad leg and needs some Christmas cheer. It's a scenario heaving underneath the weight of its plot and things only get stickier when theft and murder enter the picture. Honestly, the film doesn't resolve in a particularly satisfying way but it still has tremendous atmosphere - all the Christmas decorations, the Father Christmas scenes, the wintry mountain town. It's ethereal and has moments both fantastic and haunting. The movie is stolen (for me) by Marie-Hélène Dasté as La mère Michel wandering the streets in a veil, looking for her lost cat Mistou, and offering dire proclamations: "Everyone, everyday, loses a small piece of life."
Farewell, Friend (1968) - Another Alain Delon film pitting him against an American actor, in this case none other than Charles Bronson. It's the story of two French Legionnaires, Delon and Bronson, returning to Marseilles after a deployment in Algeria. As part of an awkward scheme to return some bearer bonds to a financial institution before they're discovered to be missing, Delon plots to break in and crack their safe over Christmas weekend. Bronson insinuates himself into the job after overhearing millions could be held there and the two manage to get themselves locked into the vault room with no food or water. While they are initially at complete odds with each other, they ultimately join forces to escape and realize there's more to the heist than they imagined. Farewell, Friend has a somewhat bizarre structure that subverts many expectations one might have for a heist film but it's still such a visually rich thriller that focuses more on bonds of friendship and an honor code instantly recognizable to fans of Melville, Woo, or Mann. The film truly leans into the physicality of both actors and Bronson's rough playfulness counters Delon's reserve rather well. Of contextual interest to Bronson fans, Farewell, Friend was his first big European hit which set the then journeyman actor on the path to international stardom. Bronson would only ever play leading and co-leading roles for years to follow.
Paris Pick-Up (1962) - Pick-Up is a Parisian noir set during Christmas Eve and the events play out mostly over the same night running into Christmas Day. Robert Hossein plays a man returning home who encounters and pursues a beautiful married woman played by Lea Massari. They're both looking for someone to help alleviate their loneliness on Christmas but they both have dark secrets they'd rather not reveal to each other. They walk the empty streets, visit each other's respective empty apartments and navigate the pronounced sexual tension between them. The intrigue only increases following an unexpected death and the methodical reveal of those secrets. It's impossible to talk too much about the plot without spoiling it so it will have to suffice to say that Pick-Up is an elegant and melancholy dive into the darkness and isolation the holiday season means for so many people. It takes elements from American noir narrative conventions but also has strong elements of the "doomed lovers" of French poetic realism (Port of Shadows comes to mind). The film is bursting with holiday aesthetic from Parisian shopping sequences, Massari's decorated apartment, and even a midnight mass. I'm often taken by these 60s cool gallic interpretations of the genre and this was my favorite "discovery" of the list. I'd love to see Pick-Up in a collection of international or French noir films like we've seen from Kino Lorber and Radiance and it's certainly deserving of a wider audience.
Joyeux Noël!
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