LGM Film Club, Part 294: Max and the Junkmen

Criterion has a series of Romy Schneider films, which is fun because it unveils a whole world of 60s and 70s European films I haven’t seen before. One of them is Claude Sautet’s Max and the Junkmen, from 1971. This film stars Michael Piccoli as a clearly depressive and obsessed cop who won’t settle for anything other than getting iron clad evidence to put away criminals. So he sets up a guy in a gang (Bernard Fresson) that he used to know through his girlfriend (Schneider), pretending he is a banker and feeding her information so that the gang will walk into the trap. It’s one of those kind of bummer cop movies of the era that work so well. The ending isn’t completely satisfying in its surprises, but it’s a worthy piece of cinema.

This clip is only in French and is focused primarily on Schneider’s leather outfit but you take what’s available sometimes.