Complete, Uncut Version of French Gangster Classic Starring Alain Delon & Yves Montand, is Released for First Time in the U.S. by Rialto Pictures Presented by John Woo

The director's cut of LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970), Jean - Pierre Melville’s masterpiece of Gallic gangsterism starring Alain Delon and Yves Montand, will be released for the very first time in the U.S. This version, 40 minutes longer than what has been previously seen here, is a John Woo presentation of a Rialto Pictures release.

Impassive faces, snap - brim hats, dangling cigarettes, sunglasses after dark, raincoats without rain, nightclub floor shows...We’re unmistakably in the milieu of Jean - Pierre Melville, doyen of the New Wave and prince of the fate - haunted French gangster picture (Bob Le Flambeur, Le Samourai, etc.), here, for his penultimate work in the genre (“a digest of all the thrillers I've made”) bringing together three archetypal tough guys for their appointment with destiny in the "red circle": prisoner - in - transit Gian Maria Volonté, crashing out of the train that’s taking him from Marseilles to Paris; ex - cop Yves Montand, moving from hopeless DT - plagued drunk to dapper, rock - steady sharpshooter; and quintessential Melville anti - hero Alain Delon (Le Samourai), on his first day out of the joint shrugging off two murder attempts and planning his next big job. All join forces for a meticulously orchestrated heist of a Place Vendôme bijouterie, a silent tour - de - force in the grand movie tradition of Rififi, Topkapi, and The Asphalt Jungle.

A smash hit in France (it was the biggest success of the director’s career), LE CERCLE ROUGE wasn’t shown theatrically in the U.S. until the 1990s, and then only in a dubbed version shorn of 40 minutes. Here, for the first time, is the complete, uncut version — in French (with new subtitles by Lenny Borger) — with its noirishly muted color cinematography by Melville/New Wave lenser Henri Decaë (Le Samourai, The 400 Blows, Elevator to the Gallows, Purple Noon) more vivid than ever in a brand new restoration that was selected for the prestigious “Heritage” section of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

This new restoration is being presented by director John Woo, who cites Melville as a key influence. Says Woo, "Le Cercle Rouge is a classic. Melville's style moves with his actors as they deliver their soulful performances, and the romantic values of friendship expressed in this movie are hard to find today. There's no mistaking that this is a Melville film; all of the elements synchronize to his vision.”