American philosopher Hubert Dreyfus saw the film as exemplifying Friedrich Nietzsche's conception of ("active" versus "passive") nihilism. On this reading, Michel and Patricia are attracted to each other. Michel is active and bold (modelled on Bogart, whose humorous gestures he adopts), engaging himself into careless actions, including crime. He falls in love with Patricia. Patricia, however, isn’t comfortable in such engagements. In the end, she cooperates with the police and Michel gets shot down by them. Dying in the street he expresses his disgust of her "You make me puke". Her monotone reaction, entirely lacking empathy for her dead friend "What is puke?" indicates her brutal distance to relationships, which Michel knew about all the time already and which consquence it will have for him. The fact that he abandoned the chance to escape before the shot, indicates that he surrendered in this fate eventually.[7]
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