Le cercle rouge

This is only the second film I've checked out on IMDB and both have had negative user comments. In this case the person contributing comments was a tad chauvinistic and appeared to be strongly biased against French movies. I am English and can't get enough of French movies,but I also can't get enough of GOOD movies, be they English, American, French, Italian, whatever. Whichever way you slice it Le Cercle Rouge is a masterpiece, shot by a director at, as the cliche has it, the height of his powers. Cool, stylish, slick, professional,call it what you will, it's a winner. Everyone is on top of their game,not least Bourvil in a rare attempt at straight acting - he is best known as a zany comic in a series of box office smashes that don't translate well into English. The Melville schtick, a set-piece, is a doozy this time around, a jewellery heist on the Place Vendome, carried out in total silence in a nod to Rififfi and if anything surpassing it. The sombre,muted tones, embody the sense of cool and also the melancholy that informs the film making anything other than a downbeat ending unthinkable. Like the man said, if you only see one movie this year make it this one.

for the story. for acting. for music. and for the wise manner to define each character. after many films from same genre in the "60'-"70', Le Cercle Rouge cold seems be part of a series. but the work of a great director, a splendid cast - the performance of Bourvil is one of the great revelations -, the care for details and the shadows of personal stories as mixture of flavors are the virtues of a thriller who remains more than memorable. a film about few people as signs of theirs worlds. about duty. and about forms of madness. all - very simple. almost like drawings of a state of soul. a film about solitude.and a splendid atmosphere.short, a film who must see. maybe, only for the delicacy to expose delicate things who define each of us.

"Le Circle Rouge" from 1970 is a French film. That's another way of saying that a lot of Americans won't like it and won't understand this gritty and underplayed film. The title comes from a made-up Buddhist saying, "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." Melville made up a saying for Le Samourai as well.

One thing we've lost in filmmaking in this country is the art of the buildup. You have to get to the point of the story in five minutes. This film is about a jewelry heist, and the jewelry heist happens very late in the film.

Corey (Alain Delon) is released from prison after five years. Just before he leaves, one of the guards tells him about a jewelry heist he can get in on. Corey is uncertain, so instead he goes to his old boss Rico and steals money from him. Rico sends thugs after him to retrieve the money.

In a parallel plot, a criminal Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) is being transported by train and escapes. He winds up hiding in Corey's trunk while Corey is in a restaurant.

Corey finds him, hears his story, and lets him travel by trunk. The car is cut off by Rico's people, and in the ensuing fight, Corey loses the money. Now broke, he decides to join the jewelry heist and include Vogel.

They invite a former police detective, Jansen (Yves Montand) to join them. He is a bad alcoholic having the DTs. Somehow he manages to pull himself together and meet with them. The heist is on.

I would be surprised if there is one page of dialogue in this script, and yet you keep watching. Perhaps influenced by another classic, Rififi, the heist is carried out in complete silence.

The director, Melville, does a magnificent job of keeping us interested, even if there is not much background given of the characters. We know that Delon's boss is sleeping with his former girlfriend, and that's about it. We don't know what made Montand an alcoholic. Melville keeps us focused on their objective.

The acting is very smooth, with Volonte (Vogel) a standout who also has the best role. His scene of escaping police and dogs is one of the best scenes in the movie.

The police commissioner in the movie states that in the end, all men are guilty, even the police. He believes that we are all tainted with original sin. Maybe so. "Le Circle Rouge" won't do much to convince you otherwise.

Jean-Pierre Melville is one of the most slept on directors of all time. A little too old to ride the crest of the French New Wave, Melville was respected by Godard, Truffaut and the rest but never caught the attention of the international film community like those who followed him did. Melville's crime tales are directed perfectly straight forward without the hipness that permeated the French New Wave . His protagonist of choice Alain Delon had the ability to portray either cop or crook and the audience would always side with him. "The Red Circle," is one of Melville's best collaborations with Delon--not as good as "Le Samourai" (1967) but superior to "Un Flic" (1971). Nowadays cats tend to say "they don't make movies like that anymore" but "they" weren't making films like Melville during his time--over thirty years ago. Don't sleep on Melville, he's the real deal. To put it simply, Melville was and still is the man.

After leaving prison, master thief Corey (Alain Delon) crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.

The movie has its critics, particularly those who think it is too slow. And, indeed, even when cut down to 99 minutes and dubbed in English, critic Vincent Canby still found it to be a tad slow. Most of the film has no music, which keeps the pace slower, and there is the notorious heist scene featuring no dialogue for thirty minutes. For some, that may be intolerable.

Melville is a master, and possibly the most underrated director of his era. His name means nothing to so many people, and yet he never made a bad film. Even when relying on cliché (such as crossing a river to avoid detection), he does it with finesse.