Being a huge fan of the stylish classic Le Samourai, I’ve been very remiss in not seeking more of director Jean-Pierre Melville’s other films. When I saw a DVD copy of Le Cercle Rouge (1970) available for cheap, I snapped it up and settled in. Now if you thought Alain Delon was impeccably handsome in Le Samourai, this film adds an moustache, which distracts one from the fact that his character’s name is “Corey”. He plays a thief who is released from jail and the film sets up a slow connection with an escaped criminal Vogel (played by Gian Maria Volonte, Italian star of A Fistful Of Dollars/For A Few Dollars More). Their chance meeting and connection, backgrounded by the drizzly countryside, with more cigarettes than words shared, precipitates a diamond heist. The third member of the gang is a haunted ex-cop who is also crack shot (Yves Montand). Other characters are given equal time and dimension including the cat-loving gentleman detective (Andre Bourvil) out to reclaim the escaped criminal. All of this leads to a tense, silent heist sequence that goes for 20 minutes or so. A clear influence in different ways on people like John Woo and Michael Mann, these masculine archetypes don’t give anything of themselves away but all follow their own code, which usually amounts to professionalism and brotherhood – even if, as one character remarks, all men are guilty and prone to corruption and greed. An expansion of Le Samourai’s elegant cool and air of existentialism. Recommended
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