Drive, he said

Cavale (On the run)

(2002)

OK, look: I take a back seat to no one in loving The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, but if there's a more perfect film noir than this, I haven't seen it. It has (1) prison escape, (2) sympathetic killer, (3) thwarted love, (4) potential new love, and so on--never mind that it's just one-third of a remarkable coterminous multigeneric trilogy. Good lord, how was I able to buy all three films, on two discs, for $5.98, postage paid? If you can get the same deal, get it! Otherwise, Nf.

All we have are unanswered questions at the start: what was he in for? Why is he out? What does he plan? What alliances and grudges remain? The answers come--not necessarily completely, but satisfactorily--little by maddening little, building both our sympathy for and our frustration with Bruno. The answers will doubtless be refined in the other two films (I'm glad it has been a few years since I saw the whole trilogy in a single M5 day), but this would stand alone if it needed to as a gem of its genre.

One other bit of minor praise: the subtitlers respect us enough to know that they don't need to translate every "bonsoir." On the other hand, I did notice one euphemized translation that I wish had been given straight: at the end of a marital argument, the woman says, according to the titles, "Who cares what you think?" which is a harsh enough thing to say to your ostensible partner in life and love. But I know a little bit of French, enough to recognize that what she really said was "Fuck what you think!" Ouch.