Touchez Pas au Grisbi (The Criterion Collection)
by Jacques Becker
Our Price: $57.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $39.11 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Dora Doll, Jean Gabin, Marilyn Buferd, René Dary, Vittorio SanipoliDirector: Jacques Becker
Brand: GABIN,JEAN
Cinematographer: Pierre Montazel
Writer: Jacques Becker
Editor: Marguerite Renoir
Producer: Robert Dorfmann
Writer: Albert Simonin
Writer: Maurice Griffe
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Touchez Pas au Grisbi (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Stunning Gangster Tale with Class...
Summary: 5 Stars
Class is often confused with style and fashion in the regards to how one dresses. In our contemporary society this confusion is frequently expressed through flamboyance, which is usually the result of how money talks. However, this vain perception of class has nothing to do with one's self conduct. Refinement, sophistication, and class are qualities that should be attached with characteristics such as trust, confidence, and mutual respect. These qualities are what define a gentleman. When people see a true gentleman they only see the exterior, and it is this exterior that money buys.
The days of gentlemen criminals are long gone. Films such as Scarface (1983), New Jack City (1991), or any of Takashi Miike's violent gangster illustrations depict the new style of gangsters that contemporary society is facing where disloyal and ill-mannered thugs roll in the direction of dough. These films visualize the frightening power money has on people. This could be seen up close in a grotesque manner in the brilliant Maria Full of Grace (2004) where humans are being regarded as pack mules. Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, which was shot over a half century ago, depicts the coming of this new criminal element.
Nostalgia swallows Jacques Becker's crime story about the aging criminal and gentleman Max (Jean Gabin). The story takes place in Paris where Max lives life with a women half his age while spending untold numbers of nights desiring the same meaningless affection from the women seeking their way into men's wallets. The many visits to the night clubs have led Max to discover that he has grown old, and many of the people around him are older. The life he once desired is no longer as appealing, as he decides that he wants to return home early. Max even discloses this to his friend Riton (René Dary) while having found out that Riton's young girlfriend has found a younger lover, as she has previously given Riton empty promises of love.
The professional life, which Max has chosen for himself is also undergoing a transformation. Younger generations are cutting into the growing drug business without the consideration of others, and these young newcomers show little class while they trample on everyone in their sight. Recently Max carried out a job that brought him and his partner Riton 50 million worth in Orly gold bars. This was to be Max's final job before retirement, however, the newcomers in the criminal underworld seem to want change his destiny.
Touchez Pas Au Grisbi is a stunning gangster tale where the old ways are to face off with the new. This is depicted through Max who is undergoing a personal life changing experience, as he is confronted by events around him that make him question what he is doing. The character that Jean Gabin delivers to the screen is marvelously multifaceted, as he portrays the gentleman thief by being a tender lover, clever diplomat, friendly patron, and firm interrogator. The cast around Gabin also displays nice work as they all accentuate Max's uniqueness by being fairly simple characters. Much is due to Becker's marvelous directing, which comes together through all the aspects of filmmaking. This eventually leaves the audience in a haze of bewilderment, as Touchez Pas Au Grisbi offers a complex and enriching cinematic experience.
Description of Touchez Pas au Grisbi (The Criterion Collection)
Jean Gabin is at his most wearily romantic as aging gangster Max le Menteur in the Jacques Becker gem Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot!). Having pulled off the heist of a lifetime, Max looks forward to spending his remaining days relaxing with his beautiful young girlfriend. But when Riton (René Dary), Max's hapless partner and best friend, lets word of the loot slip to loose-lipped, two-timing Josy (Jeanne Moreau), Max is reluctantly drawn back into the underworld. A touchstone of the gangster-film genre, Touchez pas au grisbi is also pure Becker?understated, elegant, evocative.Grisbi isn't the hero's name but a bit of French slang meaning "loot," which is what drives this elegant Gallic crime thriller. Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) stars as Max, a suave, smooth, elder statesman of a gangster who still manages to hook a pretty young damsel on his arm when he strolls into his favorite restaurants and nightclubs. Max belongs to the old world of criminals, where a romantic code of loyalty rules, but he's confronted by the postwar generation of ruthless, ambitious thugs when affable drug dealer and aspiring mob boss Angelo (Lino Ventura) discovers the secret of his loot. He strikes at Max's weak link, his thickheaded best friend and partner Riton (René Dary) and delivers an ultimatum: the money or the man. Director Jacques Becker (Antoine et Antoinette) takes his time with the tale, turning such digressions as a simple meal or an informal consultation into a fully realized scene with a rhythm and a drama all its own. He also enriches the film with a wonderful gallery of characters (including a small but delightful turn by young Jeanne Moreau as a pouty gold-digging chorus girl). The film sometimes dawdles but never drags, and every scene is energized by Gabin's cagey, confident Max, a worldly figure of grace and dignity who turns ruthless when a friend's life is at stake. --Sean Axmaker
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Milky Way (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $42.99
A Woman is a Woman (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-06-22; Published: 2004-06-01; DVD
Best price: $53.39
The Small Back Room (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-08-19; DVD
Best price: $19.64
Price in other shops:
Le Corbeau (The Criterion Collection)Release date: 2004-02-17; DVD
Best price: $30.00
That Obscure Object of Desire (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $54.31
The Phantom of LibertyPhantom; Release date: 2005-05-24; DVD
Best price: $69.24
Bob le Flambeur (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2002-04-16; DVD
Best price: $72.95
Quai des Orfevres (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-05-27; DVD
Best price: $34.24
Port of Shadows (The Criterion Collection)GABIN,JEAN; Release date: 2004-07-20; DVD
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Le Trou (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-10-16; Published: 2001-10-01; DVD
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops: