The film also offers a strikingly bleak view

of the French capital at the time. Though the first Parisian landmark seen in Le Doulos is the Sacré-Cœur, the camera quickly draws further and further away until finally ending in a bombed-out wasteland. Consider the romantic renditions of Paris playing that same year on the big screen such as in Truffaut's Jules et Jim or Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7; films which shoot the city with a palpable joie de vivre even when their narratives are melancholy. Compared to the Paris of these films, Melville's is desolate, even if still stylish to look at.