Programming the VCR recorder to tape Le Samourai off daytime SBS was my introduction to director Jean-Pierre Meville, mainly because I’d read about him in old classic cinema books as well as knowing that film was an influence on John Woo’s The Killer (as well as Ronin, Ghost Dog, etc). I’ve only slowly caught up to Meville’s other work, such as Le Cercle Rouge, but when Mubi added Army Of Shadows (1969; L’armée des ombres) to its library, I was very keen.
There is still the cool style of those other crime films, but Army Of Shadows is something else entirely, a movie about the French Resistance during World War II, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel. Meville, from what I’ve read, also worked for the Resistance during the war as well, and this might account for the tone of the movie, which clashes with the derring do vibe of a lot of WW2 movies from the 1960s. Here, fighting in the resistance is a grim and gripping experience as capture, torture and death are always around the corner (set during 1942, so no relief is in sight). Focusing first on the unassuming, bespectacled Gerbier (Lino Ventura) as he is transported to a POW camp, it is slowly revealed that he is important to the resistance and his eventual return is a sharp, brutal moment. The wider network is revealed with key players such as Felix (Paul Crauchet), Jean-Francois (Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vincent Cassel’s father), and Mathilde (Simone Signoret); we hear their reveries in voice-overs and the movie switches perspectives as their missions continue.
With darkened shadows and dulled, cool colours, the film’s visual palette is painterly yet muted and accompanied by composer Eric Demarsan’s tense music. There are some particularly suspenseful and unforgettable sequences such as when an informant has to be killed and the inexperienced resistance fighters discuss how they will do it in front of the petrified target. The performances are great, particularly Ventura’s reserved front in the face of everything. Much like Meville’s other cinematic characters, these are precise and professional people in a grimy, bloody business. Yet the existentialism here is heavier and bleaker due to the historical events being depicted. A masterwork. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 