Atlantic City (Louis
Malle, 1980)
Lou is a small time gangster, who
thinks he used to be something big. He meets up with a younger girl, Sally, who
is learning to be a croupier. Her husband turns up with drugs he has stolen
from the Mafia.
Louis
Malle once said that he never really was a part of the
French New Wave. However, many would consider his first films as part of the
famous French films. Having worked with Jean-Jacques
Cousteau and Robert Bresson
brought to his films some kind of distance from his subjects. This is probably
one of the reasons he could treat the issue of French collaborators as cold and
as deeply involved as in Lacombe, Lucien.
Malle always wanted to make films like Bresson’s and in some ways it is better
that he managed to make films of his own and not copy what his master did. It can
only be one Bresson.
