By DEBORAH NICOL, PAUL BRENNER & WADE GOSSETT

crime (krīm) A motion picture depicting an act, or the commission of an act, that is in gross violation of law, and which makes the offender liable to punishment by that law

Bob le Flambeur [Criterion]

Jean-Pierre Melville's 1955 Gallic meditation on American gangster films has been given a brilliantly clean and sharp presentation by The Criterion Collection. Aside from being a prime formal influence upon the soon-to-be-born French New Wave, Melville's film is also one of the finest heist movies of the 1950s. Roger Duchesne takes the title role as an aging gambler who, disheartened with a string of bad luck and the advent of less stylish forms of criminals, decides to plan one last big score -- the robbery of the famed Deauville casino. Melville conveys the genuine flavor of Montmartre and Pigalle with hand held shots and slow and stately camera tracking moves, while cinematographer Henri Decae captures the evanescent glow of a city awakening at dawn. Infused with Melville's love of film and his wry humor, "Bob le Flambeur" is as cool and dry as champagne cocktail. Besides, what more can be said about a film that ends on a lawyer joke with the punch line delivered straight into the camera? The special features include a twenty-minute interview with actor Daniel Cauchy, a 1961 WBAI radio interview with Melville, and the theatrical trailer. An enclosed booklet contains a short essay by Luc Sante and a 1970 interview with Melville, excerpted from Rui Nogueira's "Melville on Melville." - DN

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Les Vampires [Image]

Preceding Hollywood movie serials is this 1915 silent French serial by prolific director Louis Feuillade. Chronicling the crimes of the Vampire gang who hold power in Paris, the hero of these tales is the sleuthing journalist Philippe Guérande (Edouard Mathé) and his clownish but surprisingly helpful sidekick Oscar Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque). No overdone miming here, the cast portrays their characters realistically, with the only ham being Lévesque who occasionally interacts with the audience (as does his son in later episodes). The Grand Vampire leaders come and go, but steady henchwoman Irma Vep (anagram for vampire, get it?) is the true brains behind all of the black masks. The ten episodes in this series have been given a clean transfer, and extras included on the two-sided disc are a text introduction by Fabrice Zagury, a comic short made by the cast to raise funds for war orphans, and another comic short (with an interesting war enlistment message) staring the boy who portrayed Mazamette's son, René Poyen (and starred in a string of shorts by Feuillade). - DN

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Heist [Warner]

Twisty caper drama written and directed by David Mamet about three men and a woman (Gene Hackman, Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay and Rebecca Pidgeon) who plan one last heist after being swindled, by a more unscrupulous thief (Danny DeVito), out of their cut of a previous robbery. There are two intricately planned and timed robberies, and the acting is predictably solid, especially by Hackman as a grizzled and very clever robber with some scruples. As with other Mamet films the characters talk to each other rather theatrically, in terse and masculine tones -- and that's one of the great pleasures of his films. Two big disappointments come toward the end: an indifferently directed public shootout which is supposed to be a resolution of sorts but instead negates the cleverness of most of what happened earlier in the film, since the characters are presumably too intelligent to resort to something as crude. And, the relationship between Pidgeon (as Hackman's tough-minded lover) and Sam Rockwell (as DeVito's smarmy heir apparent) is simply not credible. There are no extras of note. - WG

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