i’m no expert on melville, but i have seen a majority of his flms. i just saw “army of shadows” for the first time last year. needless to say, its a masterpiece. i have to watch it more times to judge it properly against the rest of his works. but for now, i think its a safe bet to say this film is his crowning achievement. after all, there’s only so many ways you can do a heist film. you gotta play by the rules of the genre, to a certain extent. but “army of shadows” is its own genre altogether.
Melville is one of my favorite directors. I consider “Le Samurai” his masterwork but admire very much “Army of Shadows” (watched for the first time at Film Forum NYC). The Criterion edition is amazing. The film looks perfect! And go for the other Melvilles in Criterion. Everyone is a great experience!
‘Army of Shadows’ is great. …But I personally would still pick ‘Le samourai’.
None of Melville’s films come close to Army of Shadows for me. His other films are good, but Army of Shadows is a great film.
Simone Signoret, and the devastating effect of that photograph…so perfect and sad. And the protag in the airplane, calmly eating his sandwich, then trying to sleep, before he jumps into the dead of night to try to rescue his comrades….the calmness of his resistance: a lovely juxtaposition…
This post made me decide not to sell Army of Shadows.
Apologies to Le Cercle Rouge, however.
amazing. what a masterpiece. just saw this for the first time last night on HDNet. at this point, all i can say is WOW. eager to see it again. lusting after that Rialto boxed set even more now.
saw HUNGER today — these two films would certainly make a devastating double bill.
sorry, the above posted twice, & i seem unable to delete this post, only edit it,, so i’ll just reiterate: do not miss this masterwork.
Army of Shadows’ in depth study of the resistance is incredible. While Le Samourai is my favorite of his “lighter fair” crime dramas, Army of Shadows is my favorite film of his with the most substance. Melville does little wrong in my book.
Jimmy – which Hunger did you see? Henning Carlsen’s Hunger from 1966 is a classic.
Christopher, I saw Steve McQueen’s far more recent HUNGER, about Bobby Sands and the IRA. While a radically different film from AOS, seeing them both within a 24-hr period was a powerful reminder of just how horribly people can treat one another. if i may so oversimplify.
btw, i went out today and splurged for the two-disc ARMY OF SHADOWS, even though it’s still available for free on Sundance On Demand, because this is such a great film that I must own it.
Army of Shadows is his best film.
I agree, Army of Shadows is an amazing film. The music is perfect and the innerworkings of the resistance was very interesting. Great film.
Le Cercle Rouge has some great scenes, but it’s inconsistent as a whole. Le Samurai is great as well. Melville is just such a fantastic director, his films breathed life, it’s difficult to find a really bad one.
I think this film would be like candy on blu-ray (thus begin jokes about its colour palette). Anyone else?
I had only seen Le Samourai before tonight and I thought it was good but a little too “cool” for my tastes, though I may re-watch it at some point. I just finished Army of Shadows and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The films was devastating. My favorite moment is the small moment when Phillipe is standing behind train tracks (after he jumps out of the helicopter) and a train goes by between him and the camera. That felt like a perfect visual metaphor for the character’s life to me.
I was actually disappointed by this movie. I’d seen and loved Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge, Bob Le Flambeur, and Second Breath. I saw it a while ago, so I can’t say for sure why I was underwhelmed. Maybe it was just overhyped when it was re-released a few years ago. One thing I remember was when they had to run from the firing squad and the main character got away. It felt random and lacked suspense, but maybe that was the point. I think the next scene was them in the car turning past soldiers with the epilogue following, showing the futility of the escape I suppose.
Can anyone tell me if Melville’s Le Doulos is any good. How does it hold up to his other crime movies?
This is the only Melville film I haven’t seen. I’m a little intimidated by the reputation and some of the negative reviews so I feel like I should be in the right mood whenever I’m going to decide to watch the film.
@Jamsin
Le Doulos is every bit as good as the four films you mentioned in the beginning of your post. A must watch for Melville fans.
Like I said i’ve only seen AoS an Le Samourai but from everything i’ve heard AoS is distinctive from his other works. The big reputation thing can be intimidating I suppose. You should probably watch it with another film you want to see so it isn’t a grand event that get built up too much.
@Jamsin
A whole lot happens between the main character escape and the epilogue.
I agree with Jamsin on the escape scene and i am glad someone brought that up because that scene in the film kind of ruined it for me. It just seemed to unlikely and fake to me. Give me Le Samourai or Bob Le Flambeur anyday.
@JASMIN: I was really bored while watching ARMY OF SHADOWS, thinking, “Really? This is the film that has broken all these house records and been held-over for months?” Disappointed and sitting there during the re-release thinking, “overrated!”
Upon leaving the film, my mind finally caught up, reconstructing from my fresh memory more and more of the dastardly privileged information dynamics between the characters and the viewing audience. The thing is like a Rube Goldberg machine in its perfection and complexity.
***SPOILER*** Just to have revealed in close-up that Cassel’s character holds only one poison caplet as he lies to his blind fellow prisoner (and dearest friend) that he holds two—one for each of them—was a devastating and emotionally involving instance of the casual heroism, deceit, and sacrifice necessary for The Resistance to operate.
(Scanning back over the thread, I’m seeing the word “devastating” in perhaps the majority of these posts…I should mention I also thought LE SAMOURI overrated and boring when I saw it many years ago, but now absolutely want to check it out again)
I think one of the things that may be misunderstood about the film is that while very grim, it isn’t supposed to be neo-realist. The film is more about the psychological downward spiral in these character’s lives than a historical treatise. It isn’t the particulars of the escape that matter as much as the fact that it is only temporary. Parts of the film border on the horrific, in the genre sense of the word.
this film is special. one of the great criterion releases.
I just finished watching Army of Shadows and like most people here, all I can say is WOW. I haven’t seen any of Melville’s other films and knew very little about this film other than people on this site said it was great (I specifically avoided reading this thread so it wouldn’t bias me when watching). I can’t believe I missed this film – how the hell have I not heard of it before? This is easily the best film I’ve seen recommended by people on this site. Yay for The Auteurs!
The pacing of the film can be slow I suppose and it sort of reminded me of The Day of the Jackal in terms of the rythme. But this methodical, deliberate pacing was one of the things I enjoyed. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn’t. In Army of Shadows, it definitely worked. Now I’m intrigued by some of Melville’s other films and I look forward to checking them out.
I just finished watching this On Demand, since I saw it being discussed on the forums a couple of days ago. I’ve never seen any of Melville’s other films. At first, I was bored and uncomfortable. I’m no history buff, and the little details of the period and the French Resistance, Vichy France, and WWII were going over my head. The amount of characters thrown at you at the beginning had me a bit confused as well. So I stopped the movie halfway, read up on some of the history, and began watching it anew.
There are so many wonderful details here, so many little intricacies, and portraits of a grim sort of hope. I loved the ongoing motif with Felix and his hat (and the theme of hats in the film). He’s the one that’s scolded for not wearing his hat at the beginning of the film. When he’s captured by the Gestapo, his hat lies on the ground, forgotten. It’s little touches like this that just completely rounded out the picture for me. The music just kept up this level of high tension and dread, and some of the cinematography was absolutely beautiful (although a bit dark and murky in other spots).
This is probably my new favorite movie about WWII, after Downfall.
In my experience, this movie stood largely on the power of the setting and atmosphere, which was oppressive and prison-like, even in the open French countryside (i.e. the long clip of the van driving to the concentration camp at the beginning of the film). The empty, lonely hopelessness of an oppressed nation really came through, from beginning to end.
However, I don’t think this atmosphere was the key dramatic element… it was just the necessary groundwork. The key dramatic element was actually the guilt and inner conflict of civilians at war, dramatized in the moments of conscience that were scattered through the film. In particular, I’d cite: the protagonists’ early hesitation to commit murder and the haunting experience of getting over that hang-up; Phillipe’s tortured and futile attempt to face the Nazi machine gun without running; and the final twist in the story, which was probably a minor incident in the grand scheme of the revolution, but which was a morally crushing moment for the characters and their sympathetic audience.
The flow of plot was a bit jumpy, I’d say, like the lives of its protagonists; however, the film was ruthlessly honest in its portrayal of violence, anxiety, and emotional fallout.
Most personal? Probably. His best? Not in my opinion, I personally like “Le Samourai” and even “Le Duolos” better than “Army of Shadows”. I found it to be dull/slow moving in some spots but ultimately, it’s a fantastic film of course. I love it, but not my favorite of Melville’s.
I think that “L’Armée des Ombres” is one of the best film about the French Resistance, it’s a powerful one and close to reality, an addition of calm and violence (the mak of J.P Melville), the violence of this particular time of History….
But my preference goes to “Le Cercle Rouge”, it’s a very “original” hold-up movie, Bourvil, G.M Volonte, Y.Montand are amazing in this.
Just seen this. I join the chorus of Wows.
Spoiler Question:
At the end: The look on Simone Signorets face just before she is shot. Does that indicate that she welcomes her fate?- as the Big Chief surmised when he was trying to justify killing her earlier. Its ambiguous I suppose but I would like to think that she knew exactly what she was doing. Good to think she went out on her own terms.
I like Army of Shadows, but I’m still for Le Samourai.
asuraf
I just finished my second go through of the great Criterion “Army of Shadows” DVD, which I think is their best Melville release to date. Surprised to see that nobody has yet made a thread about this amazing work, so I’ll start it with an overreaching question: considering it’s still relatively new to most viewers, having gotten buried upon release, and virtually lost for decades, and with the huge reputation of “Le Samourai” and “Le Cercle Rouge”, is it safe yet to finally call this very personal, emotionally devastating film Melville’s best?