L'Armée des ombres
Jean-Pierre Melville
France, 1942. Suspected of Gaullist leanings, engineer Philippe Gerbier is imprisoned and handed over to the Gestapo, before managing to escape. In Marseille, and joins the Resistance. Along with Félix and le Bison, he assassinates Dounat, who has betrayed them. Gerbier and le Grand Patron, the head of the network, go to London to win the support of the Free French Forces. At the same time back in France, Félix is arrested by the Gestapo...
With : Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Simone Signoret, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Serge Reggiani
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Melville (d'après le roman du même titre de Joseph Kessel)
Image : Pierre Lhomme
Sound : Jean Nény
Editing : Françoise Bonnot
Decors : Théo Meurisse
Music : Eric Demarsan
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Melville (d'après le roman du même titre de Joseph Kessel)
Image : Pierre Lhomme
Sound : Jean Nény
Editing : Françoise Bonnot
Decors : Théo Meurisse
Music : Eric Demarsan
Production : Corona Films, Fono Roma
Distribution: Tamasa Distribution
Distribution: Tamasa Distribution
With its rejection of historical idealisation, L'Armée des ombres (The Army in the Shadows) is one of the strongest tributes paid to the Resistance by one of its former members. Refusing to embellish the reality portrayed, Melville limits his artistic expression to dull colours contrasted only by shadows. "Far from any form of traditional narrative, the film is a sort of crumbling chronicle (...) where the characters are hollowed out, like dead people on borrowed time... and they know it. It is a tragedy where, even before the action begins, the characters know the fatality of their destiny. There is never any question of motivation, even less so of hope, only of technique, of efficiency, so that the mission they are striving towards can be accomplished" (Jean-Michel Frodon). The film was poorly received at the time, but has been reconsidered and was first released in the United States in 2006... 37 years after its French release.