Drei Uhr nachts

Jean-Pierre Melville represented the peak of commercial cinema in the 1950s and belonged to the top ranks of post-war French cinema. He admired American genre films, especially film noir and gangster films, and that is strongly evident in Bob the Gambler. Long shots, the atmosphere of nighttime Paris, and strange figures from the underworld, criminals who feel each other out and contemplate their next career moves. The film definitely does not fit into the action category, as it rather focuses on the psychology of its characters and the final heist is certainly not the climax of the film, where it's more about the characters and style. Although cinema today has a completely different pace and is accustomed to much more bombastic and sophisticated genre pieces, at the time, Bob the Gambler was very much an above-average European genre film. It's quite nice to watch a director with a strong and distinct signature, who knows what he wants to shoot and in what way. Overall impression: 75%. (11.05.2013)

It can be whatever it wants in terms of connection between American and European style, it can have elements of film noir, but this film still didn't really entertain me. The story simply felt quite boring to me, and I found it lacking tension. The camera is interesting, clean, but as a whole, it just didn't work for me. Maybe even the setting bothered me. (29.12.2014)