''The Thief of Paris'' (''Le voleur'') is a 1967 French

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

directed by

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down," Malle's filmogr ...

and starring

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...

as a professional thief (Georges Randal) at the turn of the century in Paris. The film is based on a book of the same title by

Georges Darien Georges Darien (pseudonym for Georges Hippolyte Adrien; 1862–1921) was a French writer associated with anarchism and an outspoken advocate of Georgism Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax mo ...

. The story centers on his burglaries as well as his ongoing relationship with his cousin Charlotte (

Geneviève Bujold Geneviève Bujold (; born July 1, 1942) is a Canadian actress. For her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the period drama film ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969), Bujold received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film cre ...

). It also features other well-known French actors including

Marie Dubois Marie Dubois (born Claudine Lucie Pauline Huzé; 12 January 1937 – 15 October 2014) was a Parisian-born French actress. Career She studied at l'École de la rue Blanche (ENSATT) and made her film debut in 1959, first gaining notice the next ...

Charles Denner Charles Denner (29 May 1926 – 10 September 1995) was a French actor born to a Jewish family in Tarnów, Poland. During his 30-year career he worked with some of France's greatest directors of the time, including Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, ...

and

Bernadette Lafont Bernadette Lafont (28 October 1938 – 25 July 2013) was a French actress who appeared in more than 120 feature films. She has been considered "the face of French New Wave". In 1999 she told ''The New York Times'' her work was "the motor of my ex ...

. The film had 1,225,555 admissions in France. It was entered into the

5th Moscow International Film Festival The 5th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 5 to 20 July 1967. The Grand Prix was shared between the Soviet film '' The Journalist'', directed by Sergei Gerasimov and the Hungarian film ''Father'', directed by István Szabó. The fe ...

Plot

In the opening scene, Georges Randal, the thief of the title, breaks into a big house and begins to steal the valuable objects on display. A series of flashbacks (with occasional reversions to the present) then narrates the story of Randal's life. An orphan, he is raised by his uncle along with his cousin Charlotte, who grows into an attractive young woman with whom he falls in love. When Georges reaches twenty-one and asks for the money his parents left him, he finds that his unscrupulous uncle has stolen it all. He is rejected as a suitor for Charlotte because he is poor. She is then betrothed by her social-climbing father to a dim-witted aristocrat. Georges steals the fiance's family jewels and from then on, motivated by a sense of justice and desire for revenge, follows a successful career as a gentleman thief, targeting the haute bourgeoisie. At the end of the film, he has achieved all his aims: he is married to Charlotte, is living in his uncle's house, and has recovered the money his parents left him, as well as having accumulated a fortune through his crimes. Charlotte says to him 'You don't need to steal any more' but he replies 'You don't understand!' It is apparent that he has a compulsion to go on, knowing that he will eventually be caught. The final scene shows him boarding the train back to Paris with the haul from his latest robbery.

Cast

as Georges Randal *

as Charlotte Randal * Christian Lude as Urbain Randal, uncle of Georges and father of Charlotte *

as Geneviève Delpiels *

Julien Guiomar Julien Guiomar (3 May 1928 in Morlaix, Finistère, Brittany – 22 November 2010 in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine), was a French film actor. The actor had retired to the Dordogne at Monpazier. The person who incarnated Colonel Vincent in ...

as L'abbé Félix la Margelle *

Paul Le Person Paul Le Person (10 February 1931 in Argenteuil Argenteuil () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Argenteuil is a sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise department, the seat of the a ...

as Roger Voisin called Roger-La-Honte *

Marlène Jobert Marlène Jobert (born 4 November 1940) is a French actress and author. Life and career Jobert was born in Algiers, Algeria, to a Sephardic Jewish and Pied-Noir family, the daughter of Eliane Azulay and Charles Jobert, who served in the French ...

as Broussaille, sister of Roger-La-Honte * Françoise Fabian as Ida *

as Marguerite *

Martine Sarcey Martine Sarcey (28 September 1928 – 11 June 2010) was a French stage, film and television actress.Giguere pg. 37 Selected filmography * '' Matrimonial Agency'' (1952) * ''Méfiez-vous, mesdames'' (1963) * '' The Thief of Paris'' (1966) * '' T ...

as Renée Mouratet *

Jacques Debary Jacques Debary (25 November 1914 – 9 December 2011) was a French actor. Filmography References External links * 1914 births 2011 deaths People from Saint-Quentin, Aisne French male film actors French male television actors French ...

as Courbassol *

as Cannonier

References

External links

*
''The Thief of Paris''
at Le Film Guide * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thief Of Paris, The 1967 films 1960s French-language films Films directed by Louis Malle 1967 crime films French crime films French heist films French crime comedy films Films set in the 1900s Films with screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière 1960s French films

Plot

Cast

References

Further reading

External links