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Le Cercle Rouge [1972]


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A fine movie by Jean-Pierre Melville, and be sure to watch Army of Shadows
Review date: 2008-05-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

"All men are guilty," says the chief of the police. "They're born innocent but it doesn't last." Add this bit of nihilism to Jean-Pierre Melville's fascination with the idea of the crook's code of honor and you have Le Cercle Rouge. This code of honor among crooks, however, is not simply a cliché; it's a figment of the imagination even when film moralists -- realistic moralists by their viewpoint, romantic moralists by most others' -- began to make movies on the subject. Their theme is that it isn't what one does, but how one does it. We most often wind up with stories all about experienced men with their own sense of honor, stories where fate, fatalism and the code run things.

For most of humanity, except screen writers and movie directors, this would seriously get in the way of living one's life, raising one's children and being a good friend. This mannered fatalism is something of a self-indulgent notion. Le Cercle Rouge is, in my view, a classic film for people who may secretly enjoy the adventure of just missing the last bus home. But where Melville's Le Samourai, in my opinion, is style dominating story, Le Cercle Rouge manages the great trick of combining style with a strong story and with compelling actors. The point of the movie, in my view, is nonsense...but the movie itself is a first-class experience.

Melville's hopeless tale of three crooks -- Cory (Alain Delon), Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) and Jansen (Yves Montand) -- is based on a bit of wisdom which is, maybe, attributed to the Buddha: That all men who are destined to meet, will...along with their destiny they cannot change. Maybe, because some believe Melville himself came up with the wording if not the thought. Either way, we know right at the start that this movie will not end happily, will depend upon fate and coincidence to set things up for us, and will leave us recalling the nihilistic philosophies we discovered and loved when we were in high school. Once Corey and Vogel meet and then gather in the unique talents of Jansen, we are off on a one-way ride to rob an exclusive, heavily protected jewelry story on the Place Vendome. The tension arises because we not only know the French police are after Vogel, we also realize that some determined crooks are after Corey.

The great pleasure of the movie, for me, came from admiring the work that Delon, Volonte and Montand brought to their characters, and the intelligent ruthlessness that Andre Bouvril brought to his character, the police captain Mattei. Melville hooked me as he developed these characters and their own situations; he built me up emotionally and then released me when he brought me to appreciate their probable fate and let me see see it happen. Melville establishes his set pieces -- the escape from the train, the escape from the woods, the later shootout in the woods, the meetings with Mattei and a man who refuses to inform -- with intriguing possibilities. He builds tension in all these cases by taking his time; a rare trait in movie making and an even rarer trait now. And Melville takes the time to build up Mattei as an individual. Mattei is a rueful, experienced man. He's a loner. He has a set routine when he returns to his apartment -- he greets his three cats affectionately, he draws his bath and while the tub is filling he sets out food for them. I don't know who Mattei is destined to meet, but I hope it's someone who likes cats.

Nihilism is always fashionable among some creative people and some critics. In most cases, I think it's a much harder task to set nihilism aside and to simply live one's life without damaging too many people. (And that's even more challenging to show compellingly in a film.) Le Cercle Rouge is a movie which, for me, tells me little, but it is in its own way, I think, a beautifully put together film.

For those who enjoy a well-planned jewelry store break-in and heist, there's Rififi. Jules Dassin manages this nihilistic story with a great deal of depth and tension. For those who simply enjoy expensive diamonds, Paris and a good mystery-drama with Catherine Deneuve, there's Place Vendome. For those who like Jean-Pierre Melville as much as I do, treat yourself to great movie making and watch Bob le Flambeur and, especially, Army of Shadows.

The Region 1 Criterion DVD of Le Cercle Rouge looks very good and, on the second disc, has several extras. Criterion also includes a 24-page booklet.

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Reviews


Better That Any Heist Film Of Recent Years
Review date: 2007-10-05 Rating: 8 out of 10

If you like your gangster films to be all violence and car chases with plenty of realistic violence then Le Cercle Rouge is not for you. If like a crime film which is about the personalities of the main figures with the ultra cool Alan Delon in the lead then this is for you.

The story is that Alan Delon is released from prison and teams up with escaped gangster Gian Maria Volente and ex cop Yves Montant to rob a Parisien Jewelers. In tribute to Rififi this is done in total silence. Delon is hunted by a Marseilles gangster who he robbed on his first day out of prison. Volente is chased by a police inspector played by the French comic Bouvil. In the end the various strands come together with tragic results.

OK the violent and special efects are not up to what we see in films today but Cercle Rouge is still a better heist film that any film since Heat. Worth a look.

Stylishly passionless
Review date: 2007-07-26 Rating: 6 out of 10

If you're a Jean-Pierre Melville fan you've probably already guessed that Alain Delon portrays a imperturbable gangster, there's gonna be a heist revealed in detail, there's gonna be an unshakeable cop, American cars, trenchcoats, and jazz.

This penultimate flick of Melville's, like his ultimate (UN FLIC), is too detached. The various plights resist emotional involvement -- except for the Yves Montand role which provides a splash of excitement and color. The heist in this movie is almost without tension (unlike the suspenseful ones in UN FLIC).

The story remains intellecturally interesting, however, and along with Melville's visual mastery (this time, with a yellow/green/red palette so popular nowadays), Melville fans will stay rooted to their seats.

sorry - dated and a bit dreary
Review date: 2007-07-10 Rating: 2 out of 10

Definitely a pre-Dirty Harry, French Connection etc thriller; tame and rather stagey, no great sense of milieu. Delon sleepwalks through the film. What there is by way of plot is rather unconvincing. Characters lack interest, dialogue unmemorable, philosophical asides irrelevant. Glad for those other viewers who got more out of it than me.

Melville's meticulous masterpiece
Review date: 2004-09-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

If you like special effects, big explosions, & Will Smith films, you'll find this agonizingly slow and boring.

Personally, I think it's one of the finest genre films ever made.

"Le Cercle Rouge" is an underworld epic. Bigger in scale, more complex in plotting and nuance than Melville's previous masterpiece "Le Samurai"; at times it seems like a bleak, minimalist precursor of Michael Mann's "Heat" - without that film's pretentious L.A. psychobabble.

Needless to say, Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of "Le Cercle Rouge". You can't really compare his gasbag protagonists to the taciturn über-cool of Alain Delon, but like Tarantino, Melville was something of a cinema anorak. "Le Cercle Rouge" self-consciously borrows the trenchcoats and stock situations of 1940s film noir ("released convict double-crossed by former colleagues", "alcholic sharpshooter redeemed by one-last-job"). But there's no gleeful violence, femme fatales, or hard-boiled wisecracks here.

Instead Melville's mastery of classical Hollywood film-making mirrors itself in a complex professional duel between the underworld and police. The crooks have an intricate technical grasp of their shady profession, but don't fully appreciate the human weaknesses of their criminal intermediaries until they enter "the red circle" and Inspector Mattei's rat-trap is sprung.

The brilliance of "Le Cercle Rouge" really becomes obvious in its set-pieces: Vogel's escape from custody and, above all, the jewellery heist.

Vogel's escape at the start of the film reminds me of the audaciously drawn-out opening of Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West".

The heist is a masterpiece of Hitchcockian suspense. No blazing guns - these pros are far too cool for that! - just 25 minutes of nail-biting silence as the three robbers carefully unpick the defences of a high-class jewellery boutique. Some of their tricks nowadays look a bit dated - why did "impenetrable" high security vaults always use those electric-eye alarms that anyone can lambada underneath? - but I'll bet in 1970 "Le Cercle Rouge" gave away plenty of trade secrets.

The gripping futility of "Le Cercle Rouge" is heightened by Eric Demarsan's downbeat jazz score and Henri Decae's muted photography of wintry French landscapes (Melville called this a "black & white color film").

Melville's love of American culture inevitably marked his card with the left-wing chieftans of arthouse cinema, which perhaps explains why this re-release has been so long overdue. Now can someone please re-release "Le Deuxième souffle" and "L'Armée des ombres"?...

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Yves Montand
Gian Maria Volontè
Bourvil
Paul Crauchet
Alain Delon

Creators:
Alain Delon (Primary Contributor)
Bourvil (Primary Contributor)
Henri Decaë (Cinematographer)
Jean-Pierre Melville (Editor)
Jean-Pierre Melville (Writer)
Marie-Sophie Dubus (Editor)
Jacques Dorfmann (Producer)
Robert Dorfmann (Producer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Bfi Video
Manufacturer: Bfi Video
EAN: 5035673005927
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2004-04-26
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 140 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1990-12-01
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Original Language)

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