Rialto Pictures
 


MELVILLE ON "ARMY OF
   SHADOWS "

CREDITS

BROCHURE

TRAILER

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY

 BOSTON GLOBE
    BOSTON HERALD
    BOXOFFICE
    CHICAGO READER
    CHICAGO SUN TIMES
    CHICAGO TRIBUNE
    DAILY NEWS
    EUROPEAN WEEKLY
    FILM COMMENT
    LA TIMES
    THE NEW REPUBLIC
    NEW YORK OBSERVER
    NEW YORK POST
    NEW YORK TIMES
    THE NEW YORKER
    NEWSWEEK
    PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER
    PREMIERE
    SALON.COM
    SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
    SEATTLE TIMES
    THE STRANGER
    TIME
    TIME OUT NEW YORK
    VILLAGE VOICE


 

 

 

 


Description

(1969) France, The Resistance:an escape from the Gestapo, so sudden and hairsbreadth as to leave the toughest of tough guys gasping with the icy sweat of terror and relief; two brothers remain unaware, to the end, of each other’s clandestine activities; patriots who, in relentless pursuit of traitors, must steel themselves to the most brutal of face-to-face violence.  Lino Ventura (Elevator to the Gallows, Classe Tous Risques, etc.), aided by compatriots including maitresse of disguise Simone Signoret, goes underground  in face of the German Occupation – but the price of heroism can be truly horrific.

Precursor of the New Wave and legend of the French gangster film Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob Le Flambeur, Le Cercle Rouge, Le Samourai) realized the dream of a quarter century when he adapted “the book of the Resistance,” written by Joseph Kessel (Belle de Jour) in the white heat of immediacy.  Melville turned the detached, unblinking gaze of his film noir classics on these memories of his youth – he himself served for years underground – adding a jarring finale of his own, so stoically uncompromising as to reduce Kessel himself to sobs on his first viewing.  But Army of Shadows shared in the general U.S. indifference to Melville's now-acclaimed-as-classic oeuvre and was never released here – until now.  Original cinematographer PierreLhomme personally supervised this superb new 35mm color restoration.  
 

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