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Army of Shadows
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Date  Helpful Rating 6 out of 6 users found this helpful  Fog of War with Raising QuestionsPosted: 4/26/2006A review of Army of Shadows by Charles1030 This unflinching epic of the French Resistance, starring Lino Ventura and Simone Signoret, was made in 1969 but never released in the United States. Seen in a newly restored print, its a revelationa lost classic uncovered. Infused with the bleak romanticism of Melvilles gangster movies (Le Samouraï, Bob le Flambeur), and deepened by his own experiences in the Resistance, this hard-bitten tribute to freedom fighters makes most current movies look flabby and undisciplined. Composed of relatively few events and scenes, its often excruciatingly tense and never less than heartbreakingly human. And as much as I admire Munich, Shadows leaves Spielbergs film in the dust in the moral-ambiguity department. Never before seen in the States, its already on my years ten-best list. One particular bit of luck for this reissue is the fact that Melvilles cinematographer, Pierre Lhomme, was on hand to help with the restoration of this thirty-five-year-old film. The result is a paradoxical beauty. Very many of the scenes are in sunlight--Melville avoided such facile stuff as shadows for suspense--yet they are chilly. The seasons vary, but the general effect is of a bright winter day that is freezing.
Its here that Melville fully achieved his notion of the sublime, applying Le Samouraïs empty compositions and near theatrical blocking, as well as its methodical suspense, cosmic fatalism, and sense of grim solitude, to a subject far closer to his heart, namely his own World War II experiences. Dont you dare miss it. Was this review helpful? Sign In 1-1 of 1 Per Page | ||
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