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Two Men in Manhattan @ Robert Classic French Film Festival

Although Jean-Pierre Melville occasionally contributed cameo performances in others' films, "Two Men in Manhattan" features the only starring role for the director of such crime classics as "Bob le Flambeur." When a French UN delegate disappears into thin air, reporter Moreau (Melville) and hard-drinking photographer Delmas (Pierre Grasset) are sent on an assignment to New York City to find him. Their only lead is a picture of three women. Employing a smoky jazz score and featuring stunning black-and-white cinematography that beautifully captures the gritty streets at night, "Two Men in Manhattan" is both a love letter to NYC and an homage to the American film noir.

The LA Times writes: "Melville got to exercise his vision stateside only twice. Among his 13 features, none was shot entirely on U.S. soil. The closest he came to a full-blooded American production was 'Two Men in Manhattan,' a jazz-infused nocturne in which the director, in his only starring role, plays a journalist on a quest that's not quite credible but always intriguing. In a filmography that includes such triumphs as 'Le Samouraï,' 'Le Cercle Rouge' and 'Army of Shadows' -- all greeted rapturously by critics in their recently restored versions -- 'Two Men' is, without question, a lesser work. But though it lacks the urgency of Melville's better-known films, his mastery of mood, informed by his singular synthesis of Gallic existentialism and B-movie grit, invigorates every frame."

With an introduction and post-film discussion by Robert Garrick, attorney, board member of the French-preservation nonprofit Les Amis, and former contributor to the davekehr.com film blog.