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La métamorphose des cloportes (1965 )

'woodlice' to us Brits

'Cloportes' or 'woodlice' to us Brits where I don't believe the film ever showed is a real curio. Has a super 60s 'nouvelle vague' look with splendid crisp black and white cinematography and lots of Parisian location shooting. It also has an equally cool score courtesy of Jimmy Smith but not everything sits so well here. Beginning with an almost farcical heist, this gets a bit lost and recovers as a light comedy before trying to become all meaningful. I found the mix, awkward and certainly at first difficult but now reflecting upon the film, I can't help but have some affection for it. This is partly, inevitably, because of another superb performances from Lino Ventura, ably assisted in the latter half by a strong showing by Irina Demick. Indeed the leading lady fits in beautifully with the moody b/w photography, more so than some of the others, like the appalling performance by Charles Aznavour. Can you overact without speaking? It seems so, badly miscast. But there are lovely flourishes including a most imaginative way of illustrating Ventura's spell in prison through excerpts from Movietone News clippings and a great fairground scene.

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