Le Cercle Rouge

There was a time when Melville’s’ remarkable Gallic noir was all-but-unseeable; thankfully, BFI Video are remedying that lamentable situation with these splendid DVD t... more >

There was a time when Melville’s’ remarkable Gallic noir was all-but-unseeable; thankfully, BFI Video are remedying that lamentable situation with these splendid DVD transfers. Hot on the heels of their equally commendable dusting-down of some classic Otto Preminger noir titles from the 40s come two of Melville’s most impressive essay in the genre, featuring a trio of icons of French cinema: Alain Delon and Yves Montand in Le Cercle Rouge and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Le Doulos. All give frigid, affectless performances which are totally apposite in these tales of casual death and criminality. Cool, ambiguous, these films represent the French gangster film at its most pared-down and allusive (the BFI have also issued Melville’s’ classis, Léon Morin, Prêtre, again with Belmondo). < less

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When asked of his major influences as a filmmaker, French director Jean Pierre Melville unfailingly put forward two titles: The Asphalt Jungle (Huston 1951) and Odds A... more >

When asked of his major influences as a filmmaker, French director Jean Pierre Melville unfailingly put forward two titles: The Asphalt Jungle (Huston 1951) and Odds Against Tomorrow (Wise 1959). There can surely be no doubt that in no other film does Melville come closer to capturing the taut, fatalistic, palm-sweating ambience of such classic American heist thrillers than in Le Cercle Rouge (1970). A bleak view of the possibilities of intimate bonding in a world of strict established codes pervades the very fabric of the film, the director’s thirteenth feature. It’s a well-established Melville theme and one that provides the backbone of many of his works, from Le Samouraï (1967) to the masterful Resistance drama L’Armée des Ombres (1969).
After his release from prison, professional thief Corey (Alain Delon) crosses paths with a notorious escapee, Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté). Together with alcoholic ex-cop Jansen (Yves Montand), they set about planning an audacious jewel heist on Paris’s Place Vendôme.
With Le Cercle Rouge, Melville’s characteristically austere, stripped down mise en scène and meticulous direction of actors reaches new levels of artistry and would appear to invite comparisons with Bresson. What is particularly striking about Le Cercle Rouge however is the pace and composition of individual set-pieces, most notably Vogel’s dramatic escape from a moving train, Jansen’s nightmarish drunken hallucination and the unbearably tense heist sequence. As in Jules Dassin’s Rififi (1955) the latter scene eschews superfluous cutting and unfolds in complete silence with Melville’s camera drawn to the careful, painstaking movement of his characters as they close in on their prize.
A supremely accomplished heist thriller, Le Cercle Rouge serves as both a compendium of Melville classics such as Le Doulos (1962) and Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966) and as a wholly original, quintessentially Melvillian examination of the ‘futility of effort.’
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• Icons of European Cinema

DVD Extras

• Commentary and introduction by French cinema expert Ginette Vincendeau
• Video interview with the film's assistant director Bernard Stora
• Original trailer
• Dirctor's biography.

Film Details

Cast

Alain Delon, Gian-Maria Volonte, Yves Montand

Technical Details

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