Crime Thief (Le Voleur de crimes) is a 1969 French Psychological Thriller film written and directed by Nadine Trintignant.
Jean (played by Nadine Trintignant's then-husband Jean-Louis Trintignant), a husband and father, is walking around a quarry one day, for no obvious reason. He sees a young woman in a compact car drive up, and tie herself to the driver's seat. As Jean watches in astonishment, the woman hits the gas pedal, drives right over the edge of the quarry, and plummets a couple of hundred feet to her death.
This scene utterly entrances Jean. He writes a letter to the newspaper, claiming falsely that he, Jean, actually killed the girl in the car. The letter becomes a huge story and the "Dam Killer" (apparently there was a dam near the quarry?) is a media sensation. Jean writes letters to the police taunting them and promising to kill again. He leaves his family and takes the spare room in his friend Christian's (Robert Hossein) house; he festoons the walls with press clippings about the Dam Killer. Eventually, Jean becomes fascinated with Christian's sensual young girlfriend, Florinda (Florinda Bolkan).
Tropes:
- And Starring: Florinda Bolkan is credited with "et pour la premiere fois a l'ecran"—"and for the first time onscreen"—even though she had a small part in the film Candy the year before.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The last minute or so of the film goes from color to black and white, seemingly in order to match the action with the press photographs of Jean that keep interrupting the action.
- Dramatic Irony: Loads of this when Jean insists on talking about the Dam Killer with his friends. At one point when he's making some confident assertions about the killer, Christian says "If he were here I'd like to know what you say."
- Driven to Suicide: A woman kills herself for reasons unknown. This starts Jean's descent into madness.
- Framing Device: The story is interrupted from time to time for scenes where the police are interviewing witnesses. In a scene where Jean steals a lady's purse but is immediately grabbed by a couple of male bystanders, the film cuts to the framing device, where the cops are asking why the woman told the men to let
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Possibly the most absurd example ever, as Jean steals a car by sticking a child's pen knife into the ignition.
- Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Hinted at as part of the cause behind Jean's unraveling. He says he's "bored".
- How We Got Here: Starts with Jean, handcuffed, running away from some cops before he's cornered.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: The entire soundtrack is creepy Latin and Greek chanting, which somehow is made even creepier by being set to a 1960s rock arrangement.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Witnessing the suicide of a total stranger sends Jean spiraling into madness.
- Sexy Shirt Switch: Lampshaded when Christian observes Florinda parading around in nothing but his shirt and says "My shirt suits you."
- The Sociopath: Towards the end Jean describes himself as this, saying that he has risen above petty concerns like morality and right and wrong. Whether he actually is one is more ambiguous, although he sure does seem excited about finally murdering Florinda, so excited that he turns himself in so he can brag.
- Three-Way Sex: Averted. Christian and Florinda notice how Jean keeps gawking at Florinda. They make an overt invitation for a three-way: Florinda kneels in front of Christian and he shucks off her Sexy Shirt Switch shirt, leaving her naked. Jean hesitates and then hurriedly leaves.
- Toplessness from the Back: How Florida is left when Christian pulls off the shirt that's the only thing she's wearing, when he's inviting Jean for some Three-Way Sex.
- Voiceover Letter: All of Jean's taunting letters to the cops and the newspapers, as he's pretending to be the "Dam Killer", are done in this way.
