Army of Shadows



This masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville about the French Resistance went unreleased in the United States for thirty-seven years, until its triumphant theatrical debut in 2006. Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows is Melville’s most personal film, featuring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler’s regime.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

- High-definition digital transfer of the 2004 restoration, supervised by director of photography Pierre Lhomme (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Optional DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring film historian Ginette Vincendeau
- Interviews with Lhomme and editor Françoise Bonnot
- On-set footage and excerpts from archival interviews with director Jean-Pierre Melville, cast members, writer Joseph Kessel, and real-life Resistance fighters
- Jean-Pierre Melville et “L’armée des ombres” (2002), a short program on the director and his film
- Le journal de la Résistance (1944), a rare short documentary shot on the front lines during the final days of German-occupied France
- Film restoration demonstration by Lhomme
- Theatrical trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Amy Taubin and historian Robert O. Paxton, as well as excerpts from Rui Nogueira’s Melville on Melville

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

Hon, the way Criterion is going they'll maybe get around to l'Armee des Ombres by 2017. Wot's the bet Studio Canal? WITH subs? Give 'em five minutes...

This is certainly going to be a BFI release in the next few months (it's currently on theatrical release in the UK); judging by the BFI's editions of LEON MORIN PRETRE, LE DOULOS and LE CERCLE ROUGE it'll have a fine transfer with excellent features (most likely a Ginette Vincendeau commentary).

Wow, that was a great trailer. I hope this movie does get into the CC. Does anyone know who wrote the music they used in the trailer?

Vincendeau told me that she is working with the BFI on the DVD, though she said that she was weary of recording a full-length commentary. It's a film like no other; perhaps the best film about the Resistance yet made - certainly the most personal. It has been very difficult to see the film over the last decade and prints were always poor, so this re-release is most appreciated. I'd be surprised if Criterion release their DVD this year, although, Le samourai came out of nowhere last year, so you never know.

I'm sure she meant "wary" rather than "weary" - I'd hate to think she was getting tired of Melville! Her chapter on Melville's war films in her "An American in Paris" is so full of insight and enthusiasm, it had me rushing to watch those films all over again. It is, as you say, a superb film about the Resistance, though it is also, in its own way, one of the greatest gangster movies (swap cops for Nazis and gangsters for Résistants).

D'oh!


I was surprised that the Criterion of Le samourai did not feature an audio commentary by Vincedeau, but it seems that she likes to prepare thoroughly - her BFI commentary for Le cercle rouge is magnificent, I feel; exhaustive, insightful and never dull! Vincedeau's scene-specific commentaries and intros on Le doulos and Le Morin, pretre are also excellent.

An American in Paris is indeed a great read. Well worth picking up.

While it's invariably compared to his crime thrillers the mood and tone of L'Armee des Ombres is completely dofferent. Exceedingly downbeat and depressing it's the film Munich WANTED to be, but isn't.

I saw this last nite at NYC Film Forum.

Fuckin-a, man... This film is a gift that keeps on giving. We're dealing with a film that deals directly with the fabric of memory. Clearly Melville had his memories he was dealing with & wanted to communicate his process of swimming along the moods of his mind as he reflected, to communicate what time & emotion had done to the visual tapestry of memory (perfect little title screen opening the film which runs something along the lines of "Oh bad memories I accept you, for you are my youth.."

His film here sees his visuals even more icy-warm (strange, seemingly impossible description but to me that's Melville.. a visual gunsteel coolness that is loaded to the bursting point with warmth) than LE CERCLE ROUGE, in fact his blue lens/blue lighting is taken to the greatest extreme here.

The world of espionage, particularly the necessary silences of a resistance-during-occupation, seems to topically & emotionally suit Melville's chilly & damp, heaavily loaded style of filmmaking. There is a burst of action near the beginning of the film which has one of the most amazing lead-ins to a visceral & psychological explosion I've ever seen.

A perfect film for DVD, as there is so much here to explore-- more importantly absorb-- once you've grasped what's happening in many of the initially ambiguous scene-setups. Completely opposite of a more plot-driven film or melodrama where the first couple of viewings "give" you the bulk of the mise-en-scene, this, the most poetic of Melville, will give a broad variety of returns from viewing to viewing, based on the disposition of the viewer, and progression along # of viewings.

Don't miss.

I too saw this at Film Forum last night and thought it was Melville's best film.

No, this is NOT a perfect film for DVD. Great directors like Melville need to be seen on FILM.

Huge JPM fan here, but for me his gangster films work better. Some of the coincidences in AoS seem almost Mi:3esque (NTTAWWT). Top 5 JPM, maybe.

Caution Barmy! All great films/films worthy of study need to be on DVD because that's the only way any of us can study them. And the only way most of us now can ever get to see them.

Only a handful of the world's cinephile population lives in NYC, Paris or London, clearly the three major cities for seeing retrospective sceenings and seasons from new and old prints. It's old news now but in Australia's two major cities carering to around 10 million people virtually all the indie/arthouse cinemas (all four of them) closed down last year. Now the ACMI (the OZ film library) with an enormous reserve of 35 and 16mm world cinema repertoire is in danger of being junked!! And general distribution strategies are equally minimal, with, say, Cache only getting a late relase now in Sydney and Melbourne. As for Noir seasons, directors retros, revivals from new prints - once taken for granted but now all things of the past. We have absolutely no alternative but DVD.

If you're insane, like me, you commit financial suicide and go to Paris every year or two for its many pleasures, not the least the dozen rep houses, and screening rooms. And you take out a third mortgage and buy a wildly overpiced projector and expensive AV gear to optimize the viewing (with new lamps every couple of years at another 500USD a piece.)

The world has regrettably changed. It's called the fucking free market. Most of the midwestern and southern US aint getting these things either, and god knows what the story is like even in non French Europe, where local dubbing prevails for one thing. Not ot mnetion Asia. It's all very well to pronounce from on high about the "ideal" but it's simply now become impossible. Even what was not only possible but taken for granted three or four years ago.

Meanwhile - sur sujet de l'Armee.

ISn't Signoret's character an incredible advance in Melville's range of characters and chimeric females in particular- at once a woman who takes on the "duties" of male solidraity and deliverance to the enemy, like two of the characters in the sublime le Silence de la Mer, and then allows Melville's film, and his men to grow and grow?

In a perfect world we'd have a double of l'Armee and Le Silence.

Silence and Armee would indeed make an interesting pairing, each representing a contrasting form of resistance: passive in Silence, active in Armee.

However, I'm not sure that Mathilde in Armee, though a powerful character, represents a great advance in Melville's depiction of women. She is probably the most masculine woman in all of Melville's films, and is useful to the group of Résistants because she is effectively a tough male figure who can pass amongst the enemy in various female disguises. There is no sexual or romantic element to her character, and the moment she does reveal a hint of femininity, by showing compassion for her daughter, she becomes what women generally become in Melville: a source of mortal danger for the male heroes. This is not a weakness of the film, it is simply a consistent theme in Melville: femininity=trouble.

Wow; what an amazing film. I just caught it at the AFI in DC. Of the four Melville films I've seen, this is by far my favorite. Or maybe I just really "got" Melville this time...Even during those quiet moments when nothing is really happening (in terms of action), you can feel the tension that these characters are feeling, as well as the ever-present paranoia.

And that firing squad scene! The whole scene was the strongest part of the film for me, particularly as he prepares himself, then turns and sees the machine gunner. I cannot wait for Criterion to release this. If you get a chance, go see this movie!

Excellent! Swooping down outa the sky... whoomp! Barmy! Yes, I love your dvd collection Barmy, dedicated to the work of horrible directors.

Barmy. lol

I need to catch my breath, slow down on the standup.


I'm not sure that's a fair proclamation-- everybody is fucking up in Melville. Everybody is a danger to everyone else. Delon's (ex) wife in SAMOURAI is a solid comrade at heart in a film of relentless doublecross, in fact the one person who strains to remain a true ally. LE FLAMBEUR's after hours barmaid (can't recall character's name) desperately tries to keep Bob on the quieter safe and narrow. Melvilles films seem so doom-laden & fatalistic, the atmosphere so thoroughly soaked with danger, it seems like a sacred element floating in the air beyond the control of all the characters.. this is what keeps his films in the noir mold for so many minds-- helplessness viz kicking & screaming before the hands of fate.

In Flambeur, two of the three female characters betray the male gang. In Samourai, the role of the mistress is more interesting and complicated as it's split into two parts (reflecting Jef's schizophrenia?): the light (the reliable Jeanne, whom Jef rejects) and the dark (the pianist, who draws him to his own death). While it's certainly true that "Everybody is a danger to everyone else" in Melville, I think it's worth remarking how, in the masculine world of Melville's films, weakness and danger are often shown to originate from the feminine side. Notice, for example, how in Armee the traitor in the first act is an effeminate youth.

Becker's Touchez pas au Grisbi is so much the template for Melville's crime films, also containing, as a male "snitch" the coded gay character of "Fifi" played by Daniel Cauchy.

Roger Ebert's review

I've always loved Melville, but his movies were just entertainment to me. Army of Shadows on the other hand, is so much more. It is difficult to believe the film was made 1969. To me it played as an allegory of what is in the minds of the Iraqi insurgents in 2006. (Ironically the film bombed on initial release, with the French press accusing it of being pro-Gaulist. Which, from what I know about French politics is an absurd charge. It was never even given a US release).

There are any number of sequences in this film, that are about as memorable anything in cinema history. Dialog is minimal -- so much is conveyed in the eyes of the brilliant cast. One wordless scene of people dancing in a small London bar during a bombing raid is just breathtaking.

Melville was in fact in the resistance, so Army of Shadows carries absolute realism and authenticity to go with its searing cinematic achievement. Go! Now!

I'm now officially obsessed with JPM. I saw Army of Shadows last week here in LA and agree with every single glowing comment. It kills me that I thought I knew what I was talking about when it came to JPM because I own (and love) Le Cercle Rouge, Le Samourai and Bob le Flambeur. I didn't realize that for all intents and purposes I was still a JPM virgin.

The question is how do I get my hands on his other films? I just ordered Un Flic from Amazon, but that appears to be the only other Region 1 title available. Do I need to get an all region player? For those of you who have seen some of his other films, how do they measure up?

Essential for understanding Melville's versatility are his early masterpieces Le Silence de la Mer (currently unavailable on DVD) and Les Enfants terribles (very nice edition from BFI). In both cases he brilliantly channels the tone and worldview of the writer he is adapting: Enfants is as great an expression of Cocteau's 'voice' as the best of Cocteau's own films, and Silence anticipates Bresson's mature style by a few years.

Also excellent for seeing another side of Melville is Leon Morin, pretre.

Un Flic is minor but very entertaining, with a lovely opening sequence of a bank robbery with the bank located by the seashore. Everything emerges from the morning fog. And Richard Crenna is really great in it.

Hate to draw swords with old mate zedz but I have serious reservations about the BFI Enfants Terribles DVD. After uncropped opening credits the first twenty minutes of the movie look distinctly cropped (Very similar to the BFI Partie de Campagne, which opens with windowboxed credits.) And this footage looks far more dupey than the rest of the movie. Fortunately things return to normal after 20 minutes or so. But the movie is miraculous in being a voice for both Melville and Cocteau.

I really don't rate le Doulos anywhere near as highly as the other crime pics. Am I alone in disliking Belmondo's performance in this, not to mention the explicitness of the misogyny? Similarly Leon Morin, while interesting thematically also feels sluggish to me, although Belmondo is very amsuing in this. Un Flic is probably the most interesting of the early crime pics.

EDIT For Sydney posters this new print of Armee is playing in the SFF Melville retro this month. EDIT ENCORE: I'm an idiot - keep forgetting un Flic is a late pic. It just feels far less weighty than Samourai or Cercle.

I think JPM's last 4 films were his best--Samouraï thru Un Flic. Rare to see an older director finish with such a flourish.

John Woo is remaking Cercle Rouge.

Barmy have you seen Silence? Or Enfants Terribles? The latter is incredible - you can see Melville and Cocteau both trying things out in terms of performance, narrative disruption and mise-en-scene, like the outdoor scenes at the cafe with Dermithe and Stephane terrorizing the kid, years before the nouvelle vague and, for Cocteau, just before Orphee. Rather than view the movie as a some sort of dual authored "battle" I see it as completely conspiratorially realized. Like one of Dermithe and Stephane's games.

As for Silence...