Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge

The opening quotation is fake, but the soundtrack is totally legit. You might have thought the late 1950s and the early 1960s were the peak of swinging crime jazz and it probably was in Hollywood, but Eric Demarsan really uncorked a classic for Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1970 penultimate film. Georges Arvanitas on piano, Guy Pedersen on bass, Daniel Humair on drums, and the groovy vibes of Bernard Lubat set the noir mood and sound terrific together. Oh, and the film is really good too. Uncut (as it always should have been) and freshly restored in pristine 4K, Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge opens tomorrow at Film Forum, exclusively brick-and-mortar-style.

We know Corey is hardboiled, because he is played by Alain Delon. Ironically, he is about to be paroled early for good behavior. However, one of the crooked prison guards tries to recruit him for jewel heist up in Paris. So much for rehabilitation. Meanwhile, Vogel escapes from the straight-arrow Inspector Mattei, who was extraditing him from Marseilles to Paris. When the two crooks cross paths, Corey helps Vogel elude the dragnet and recruits him for his big heist caper.

They will need another accomplice with sharpshooting skills. Vogel knows just the man: Jansen, a severely alcoholic ex-cop. Of course, Mattei is still on their trail and feeling the heat from the cynical chief of police. There is also the business of finding a fence who can handle that kind of heat.

Cercle Rouge is classic Melville, starting with the unmistakable presence of Alain Delon (who became an international icon in Melville’s Le Samorai). It is slower, more deliberately paced, and longer (140 minutes) than typical caper movies, but Delon makes it work. Fortunately, we have the Demarsan soundtrack to have something to listen to when the cast quietly broods (which is often).

Melville’s Bob le Flambeur

Forget about An American in Paris and Amélie. Bob Montagné knows the real Montmartre. It is a place where you can find dodgy night clubs and all-night card games. The latter have always been Montagné’s bread and butter, but he has been on a ruinous losing streak lately. Out of desperation he will revert to his old criminal ways in Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic caper film, Bob le Flambeur (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York, freshly restored in 4K.

Twenty years ago, Montagné did time for a hold-up, but he has been straight ever since. As a professional gambler, he still rubs shoulders with the underground, but he keeps his nose clean and maintains a non-snitching friendship with Inspector Ledru, a cop whose life Montagné once saved. For years, “Bob the High-Roller” made a good living off cards and dice, but his luck has turned. However, a casual conversation with his former safe-cracker crony gives him an idea.

An old associate now working as a croupier at the Deauville casino puts them onto the perfect time the hit the cash-rich safe. It will be a complicated job, requiring a large crew, but Montagné knows people. His first recruit will be his protégé, Paolo, but the aspiring dissolute character is distracted by his desire for Anne, a pretty but selfish femme fatale-runaway Montagné saved from Montmartre’s more exploitative elements. Marc the pimp, Ledru’s sleazy new informant is also sniffing around for something to satisfy the copper.

Flambeur is partly a heist film and partly a gambling movie, but it is all pure noir. Originally, Melville wanted Jean Gabin for the title role, but he settled for journeyman thesp Roger Duchesne, who is now best-remembered for Montagné—and justly so. It is a terrific, career-defining performance, filled with the sort of jaded, world weary insouciance only a middle-aged French leading man at the peak of his power could carry off. The mane is gray, but he is still cooler than Fonzie or even James Dean.

Isabelle Corey is also quite something else as Anne. She debuted in Flambeur, immediately becoming the French “It Girl” of the late 1950s, but after Vadim’s …And God Created Woman, nearly all of her subsequent work would be in Italian productions. Regardless, she and Duchesne have some wonderfully potent non-romantic chemistry going on.

Henri Decaë’s ultra-noir black-and-white cinematography is a joy to soak in. Plus, the moody soundtrack, heavy on vibes and boudoir saxophone, composed by French jazz musician and record label founder Eddie Barclay with bandleader Jo Boyer, is right on the money. The twists are deliciously ironic but perfectly fitting, so it seems bizarre in retrospect it was not an immediate hit in France and did not score a proper American release until 1982, especially since it is now considered a key influence for the French Nouvelle Vague. Very highly recommended, Bob le Flambeur opens this Friday (1/5) in New York, at Film Forum.

Many Happy Returns: Army of Shadows

Reportedly, French critics were scandalized by Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows on its initial release, finding its depiction of General De Gaulle far too heroic. However, it is hard to think of a film less inclined to the critical bugbear of “jingoism” than Melville’s uncompromising story of duplicity and intrigue within the French resistance. In a case of American reviewers and audiences rediscovering that which their French counterparts intemperately dismissed, Melville’s film was a breakout art house hit in 2006. To celebrate the New Year, Army (trailer here) has triumphantly returned to New York’s Film Forum for a special engagement now underway.

A local leader of the underground, Philippe Gerbier has been arrested by the Vichy police. It will not be the last time he is taken into custody. During the prison transfer, Gerbier pulls off a daring escape. It will not be his last either. Eventually, he rendezvouses with his comrades and sets out to execute the man who double-crossed him. This pattern too will repeat.

In a way, there is something peculiarly French and appropriately existential about Army. There is an unspoken sense that betrayal will mark the ultimate end of all the resistance fighters. The only question is whether they will be forced to inform on their colleagues or be informed upon. Victory is only measured by the time they continue to act as free agents in the covert battle. As result, Army manages to be simultaneous cynical and idealistic, forgiving the sins it so ruthlessly exposes.

The picture of world-weariness, Lino Ventura is lynchpin of the film. It is hard to think of a more compelling yet quietly understated screen performance. Of course, he has strong support, including the great Simone Signoret perfectly conveying the complexities and nuances of a key member of his cell. Though little more than a cameo role, Serge Reggiani is also unforgettable as a patriotic barber.

It is a convenient myth that nearly all the French were actively involved in the resistance. Army acts as an unambiguous corrective to such romanticism, as does Melville’s Léon Morin, Priest. Yet, it also suggests that many of the French still did the best they could under impossible circumstances. A film of uncommon depth that is also enormously entertaining, Army is easily the best film screening in New York theaters this week. It runs at Film Forum through Tuesday (1/4).

Léon Morin, Priest

Barny is widow living in a provincial French town, where gossip is brutal and many women are infatuated with the young handsome priest. They also happen to be living under Nazi occupation. While significant, such political realities remain a secondary concern in Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic Catholic morality play, Léon Morin, Priest (trailer here), which begins a week-long repertory run today at the Film Forum.

One day, the widowed Barny inadvertently starts on her road to redemption when she decides to attack Catholicism from the confessional, hoping to scandalize the priest on duty. She chooses Léon Morin because she assumes the young cleric will be able to handle the shock. It is certainly safe to say he can take it, as Morin easily parrying her ideological bombast. He even proscribes penance, which she actually carries out. It would not be their final meeting.

Barny finds herself drawn to Morin, often meeting him in the rectory to borrow books on theology. Despite her prejudices, she feels Catholicism satisfying on an emotional and spiritual level. Then one day an associate states the obvious: the priest is good-looking. Suddenly the nature of her attraction to Morin is inescapably obvious.

Morin is not your standard genial country priest. He is sympathetic to the resistance, to a degree which is probably dangerous, but Melville’s treatment of the occupation de-emphasizes intrigue and suspense. The real conflict is between Morin and Barny, but the stakes are not inconsequential.

As an atheist Communist developing lesbian tendencies, Barny seems an unlikely candidate for Catholic conversion. Of course, as a Jewish atheist who claimed to be a former Party member during his years in the French underground, Melville seems like an equally unlikely director for her story. However, Melville respected Béatrix Beck’s original source novel and was happy to have a chance to direct a film with a respectable budget. He was also able to cast Jean-Paul Belmondo just as his international fame was exploding. He brings an icy intensity to the title role, counter balancing Emmanuelle Riva’s passionate and sensitive Barny.

Melville’s depiction of village life is neither sentimental nor heroic. Collaboration is the norm, as most villagers hedge their bets to some extent. For instance, one woman juggles lovers associated with the resistance, the black market, the Vichy government, and the German military. Likewise, the horrors of National Socialism are never truly dramatized in the film. In fact, one of the few German officers we meet seems to be a kindly sort, who treats Barny’s daughter France as a surrogate for his own child.

Morin is not a feel-good film, but has a truly French sensibility, capturing the ambiguity of the country’s wartime experience. It will frustrate many for a host of reasons, not the least being the cool severity of its title character. Léon Morin the priest is uncompromising in all respects, unlike everyone else around him. It is a fascinating, sometimes vexing film. It opens today in New York at the Film Forum.