Ballad for a Hoodlum (1963) User Reviews

Breathless transporter

[dbdumonteil · 4/10 · 4 September 2007]

Bonnardot was obviously anxious to prove that he too could be like the big boys of the New Wavelet;seen today his "Ballade pour un Voyou" sounds like a parboiled cross between Godard 's notorious "A Bout de Soufflé" and "the transporter" this mediocre Luc Besson production.

Vincent Vivant (=Vincent Alive") has to cross a boarder with a suitcase containing a very special thing.And of course he must not open this piece of luggage for it might explode and make mincemeat of him.But as anyone past infancy knows(or should know),rules are made to be broken,so..

The actors cannot make up for the paucity of the script which features undecipherable scenes at the airport.Laurent Terzieff and German thespian Hildegarde Knef have (so to speak) one scene together in all;Philippe Noiret is wasted as a cop who tries to save the hoodlum.

Hoodlums Ballad.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 18 November 2018]

Taking part in a Film Noir challenge on ICM,I decided to dig up titles which have been laying around for ages. Finding Henri Calef's Les violents (1957) to be far better than expected, I got ready to hear a ballad.

View on the film:

Packing the suitcase when the French New Wave (FNW) was reaching its peak, co-writer/(with Jacqueline Sundstrom/ Alexandre Tabor and Marcel Moussy) director Claude-Jean Bonnardot & cinematographer Jean Badal cross the rural wilderness of the Film Noir with the fizzy youthfulness of the FNW. Shadowing Vivant's eye-catching eagle jacket with side shots showcasing his isolated state with an exploding suitcase on the outskirts of town, Bonnardot twists FNW stylisation into the mix, with jagged jump-cuts and swaying camera moves building the pressure up of the Film Noir atmosphere.

Pre-dating "The man given tasks to do round town" outline which would re-appear in the likes of the Transporter flicks and Drive, the writers do very well at linking each task Vivant is given with his main mission of taking the suitcase across the border. Revealing the contents of the case, the writers crack the collective, calm hoodlum image of Vivant with a sweaty anger of being misused by his bosses. Kicking dirt into the faces of those who've set him up, Laurent Terzieff gives an excellent performance by peeling away Vivant calm, collective manner to reveal the simmering fury as the hoodlum performs a ballad.