ElMaruecan82
What a waste! As I was watching Melville's "Red Circle", I couldn't help but think of life's cruelty. One of the greatest comedic French actors had just started to show how naturally equipped he was for drama, his name was Bourvil but he made a first name out of his breakthrough performance, André, as to distance himself from the lovable buffoon teaming up with De Funès. And yes, André Bourvil as Detective Mattei was mesmerizing without trying, his range of emotions is mostly composed of reactions and the conviction that no matter how hopeless the case is, he must move forward.And it's a waste that such a great actor had to leave the world just when we had a glimpse of his real talent, when he could have ruled French cinema for one decade or two. No, "The Red Circle" was his swan song, a final farewell to the screen he graced for thirty years. Cancer was already devouring him while he was making the film, but just as if he were impregnated by the toughness and stubbornness of his character, he kept going. And maybe that's what manhood is about, moving forward and acting according to his nature. And I think if there ever is a lesson Melville movies could teach us, is this idea of virility not as a synonym of toughness, strength, or a way with women (women have actually very secondary importance in his film) but tenacity, loyalty and principles.All the men that populate Melville's "Red Circle" are driven by a code, not exactly a code of honor, but close enough. Melville would have never dared to entrust his stories to lowlife criminals, he despised criminals with all his heart but acknowledged that gangsters were the best vehicle to values such as loyalty, duty, friendship, that Cinema made appealing. Two years later, a certain movie made by Francis Ford Coppola would prove him right, and Coppola would also suffer from the claim that he romanticized gangsters. Melville's gangsters are men who have been put in the wrong path and following their existential road, can't turn the clock back and have no other choice than trying to put within their dishonest racket, some bits of honor. You know you're not in the right side of the law, but you never try to betray your own codes, fair trade.And this is why the gangsters only kill when they're threatened, why they let the security guard alive during the heist, causing him to set the alarm, this is why the day before, when Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte) who just slipped away from Mattei, hides in the car driven by freshly released Corey (Alain Delon), he doesn't know that Corey saw him and let him do so. When the two men confront each other, a few lines are said and they're barely audible, the essential is in the eyes, the men know they can trust each other, and later, it pays off, when Vogel saves Corey from a tricky situation. What goes between these two recluse, taciturn men is the telepathic understanding that some things are better left unspoken, except the essential: the heist, in men's words: business, action.Melville made "Bob le Flambeur", one of the seminal caper films, but never has a heist looked so fluidly easy and fascinating to watch. There's not one single shot wasted, from the preparation to the execution, everything is perfectly oiled, and I loved the interpretation of Montand as Jansen, a former cop and sharpshooter, they needed one to deactivate the alarm from a thirty meters distance. And Melville is like the God-like manipulator of these figures; his voice sets the tone with a quotation of Buddha about a red circle, a sort of symbolic place where men with a 'history' together end up confronting each other. The line was made up, as it's always the case with Melville, but it serves a purpose, to leave us disillusioned about the heist, this is not what the film is about.We know it's doomed, and it's a masterstroke not to have added some artificial romance as the obligatory 'human factor'… what leads the men to their downfall is just a chain of events implicating Mattei, Corey's former partner (and obvious traitor) and Jean-Pierre Périer as a man with his feet on the two sides. The mechanisms are all set-up from the start and at the end, we're just accepting the facts with resignation, Corey and Vogel had it coming but somewhat, we don't think they deserved it, and the last line coming from Jansen about the Police is ambiguous but gives a hint about his 'personal' motives. Sometimes, it's not just business. All men have history and it's the record they try to settle that drive their actions. Again, that was two years before Coppola.One of the most memorable lines of the film (given the film's overall quietness, any powerful line was a high spot) was: "every man is guilty, we're born innocent but it never lasts", says the Chief of Police to Mattei in the beginning and the end, Mattei walks away repeating "all guilty", everyone is part of the same game, it's all about deception and betrayal, crooks playing fair, cops cheating, and that's the only way to make these two worlds meet, and this is why there's always one raison to root for all the characters, not enough to make the endings sad, only realistic albeit cynical. That's what this smiling Buddha in the opening title seems to express: cynicism, disillusion, whatever you build will be wasted.And what a waste that these men lost after all these efforts but more importantly that André Bourvil died so shortly after the film, and that a director of Melville's caliber would die 3 years later after his second feature film with Delon "Un Flic". When real life is cruel, you'll find more relief in Melville's films.
Bill Reid
Jean-Pierre Melville is famous in certain circles for leading Hitchcock to voluntarily give up making crime-dramas with a little film called Bob le Flambeur. Whatever majesty was present in his early work has truly been honed to a fine edge in Le Cercle Rouge...Those familiar with the many masterpieces Melville has crafted during the 20th Century will know how much of a formidable duo he and Alain Delon make, specifically with gems like Le Samurai. Well, the team are at it again. Melville and Delon guide the spectator through this sprawling crime/drama/heist film (in truth, it is the work of an auteur so genre is not so easily applied) like a confident instructor leading a graceful waltz. Although technically being before the Nouvelle Vague, Melville is very much a vital part of that vital movement. Godard citing his films as a huge influence in breaking away from the tired techniques of cinema du papa. Although one could group him in with other filmmakers of that time and place, Melville's films still retain a unique and authorial style and tone, all of his own. An aesthetic that is very much present in Le Cercle Rouge. This movie is a great example that you don't need fast paced editing, snappy dialogue and cool soundtrack to make a heist interesting, look out for a 20 minute master-class in tension. Using no dialogue or music for the whole segment. A class, some might say (myself included) that the likes of Steven Soderbergh should have attended.One of the greatest talents in cinema, one who should be more widely recognised as one of film's geniuses. If this tickles your fancy then I will highly recommend Le Samurai, Bob le Flambeur (as have been mentioned) and L'armée des Ombres.Thanks for reading.
bandw
I would hesitate to call this a thriller, since there is little to keep you on the edge of your seat. There is a jewel heist that is engaging, but it is not that different from similar heists in other movies and for me it did not have the suspense inherent in either of the heists in Jules Dassin's "Tokkopi" or "Rififi." The details on how the heist was planned are almost entirely missing--director Melvile seems to be more interested in what happened before and after the heist than in the mechanics of it. The overall mood is one of cool detachment.The movie starts with Corey (Alain Delon) getting out of prison, after having been told of an easy jewel heist by one of the prison guards. At first Corey expresses little interest, claiming that he has no interest in winding up in prison again. But the hook has been set. Later in the film Corey has a chance meeting with Vogel, an escaped prisoner on the lam. Once these two have hooked up it is inevitable that they cannot resist the robbery. More than half the movie is concerned with how Corey and Vogel meet. There is some philosophizing about how fate dictates certain personal meetings that have significant consequences. I did not see any great deep insight offered on this--we have all met people who have significantly changed our lives. No mysterious hand of fate is involved, just random chance.Along the way Corey and Vogel recruit the services of Jansen (Yves Montand) as an expert marksman. Jansen is an ex policeman who got out of the force because he could not tolerate the corruption. As we first meet Jansen he seems to have more general global problems than just with corruption in the police department as he is in the depths of the DTs. This scene is perhaps the scariest in the movie. The appearance of Jansen's apartment testifies to the quality of the set design, as seen throughout. Montand and Corey deliver the goods with their restrained performances and they alone make the movie worth seeing. The more I see Montand in these kind of roles, the more I think of him as a French Humphrey Bogart.I liked the variety shows being put on at the upscale nightclub where the mob gathered. I wish the DVD extras had had complete performances of those.The plot is not without holes. The biggest one for me was the fact that the thieves could gain access to the jewelry store by way of a window with single pane glass. No matter how remote that window was, given the heavy security in place it is hard to imagine that any entry was not maximally protected.The musical score is unobtrusive but effective and noteworthy in its own right.The head of the police internal affairs posits that all men are capable of corruption and evil. Is this so? And what about women?
