The Thief of Paris

The Thief of Paris (Le Voleur, 1967) is available to watch online — a French-Italian crime drama directed by Louis Malle, with Jean-Paul Belmondo as a methodical career burglar in turn-of-the-century Paris.

Georges Randal grows up expecting to inherit the family money. His uncle embezzles it. The same uncle then maneuvers Georges' cousin Charlotte — the woman he planned to marry — into a match with a wealthy neighbor. Georges responds by stealing the neighbor's family jewels, and likes it enough to keep going. He turns burglary into a vocation, not out of need but as a sustained act of contempt for the bourgeoisie that wronged him. Based on Georges Darien's 1897 novel, the film spans decades of a thief's career without glamorizing any of it.

Malle keeps the tone dry and unheroic — Belmondo plays against his usual charm here, and the film is colder for it. For 1967, it was an unusual kind of crime picture. Stream The Thief of Paris online on iFILM.