This moody piece detailing the state-of-mind of several members of the French Resistance during WWII is arguably Melville’s greatest work and one of the finest films ever made about the subject.
Review #1,066
Dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
1969 | France | Drama | 145 min | 1.85:1 | French
PG (passed clean) for some violence and disturbing scenes
Cast: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret
Plot: Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.
Awards: –
Distributor: Tamasa Distribution
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – WWII; French Resistance; Paranoia & Distrust
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Criterion Blu-ray
First Published: 4 Aug 2014
Spoilers: No
A fictionalisation yet realistic portrayal of what it must have been (and felt) like being part of the French Resistance during WWII, Jean-Pierre Melville’s superb classic is arguably his greatest film.
Melville was part of the French Resistance himself, and while his film has been accused of having Gaullist sympathies, that shouldn’t take away the haunting power of this landmark work.
Only theatrically released in the States more than three decades after it was made, Army of Shadows is like a time capsule buried underground only to be unearthed as a gem. If anything, it compels us to go back in time to re-evaluate and re-appreciate Melville’s underrated body of works.
Army of Shadows is about the state of being. It is concerned with psychological realism, the interior meaning within the characters. Faced with pressure, fear and at times isolation, Melville depicts these characters as suffering yet resolute in very dire situations.
“See you later, Comrade.”
“You’re a communist?”
“No. But I can still have comrades.”
Like Alain Delon’s character in Le samourai, these quiet rebels have a strong sense of code and honour. All these things make up most of what Army of Shadows is trying to express.
Opening with a two-minute wide still shot of the Nazis marching in front of the Arc de Triomphe, Melville immediately hooks us.
The atmospheric, sometimes sparse filmmaking style calls to attention its intentionally slow pacing, the low-lit settings and lack of narrative thrust, which on hindsight gives the picture a sort of inertia that imbues in the characters a feeling of vulnerable stasis.
In some way the cinematography and mood reminds me of Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), the somewhat off-the-radar Gary Oldman spy-thriller which could have been influenced by Melville’s work here.
Despite its glacial pacing, Army of Shadows compels with its excellent casting and acting, detailed psychological examination of men (and woman) under duress, and the unmistakable sense of melancholic evocation of a harrowing past.
Grade: A+
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 
[…] he reached god-tier levels of filmmaking with Le samourai (1967), Army of Shadows (1969) and Le cercle rouge (1970), Jean-Pierre Melville made arguably his best film of the […]
LikeLike
[…] later works by Jean-Pierre Melville like Le samourai (1967), Army of Shadows (1969) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970) remain highly regarded in the master director’s […]
LikeLike
[…] who made films such as Army of Shadows (1969) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970), was no stranger to the crime film. With Le samourai, he […]
LikeLike
[…] Perhaps it is the deep sense of retro-cool that Melville has captured in his body of work that continues to seduce me into revisiting such films as Le samourai (1967) and Army of Shadows (1969). […]
LikeLike