99 reviews
A return to silent majesty?
Everyone likes the coolly created, memorable heist movie. Alain Delon provides the antihero, Melville provides the cool, and a handful of other great talent (Yves Montand, Gian Maria Volonte, and Andre Bourvil, mostly) arrives to add a crisp engaging movie...
...with very little dialog. This is great, because one certain aspect of the genre tends to be a lot of dialog involving the quick-witted and their various repartees. This movie, however, could be watched with the sound completely off and not too terribly much would be missed. Not to say the sound is bad, oh no, the jazzy soundtrack and the crisp audio catching the little movements makes the slow, patient deliberation of the patients very compelling.
What's also really neat about this film is that the color cinematography is pretty fantastic. Usually when it comes to cinematography, black and white movies tend to stick out in my mind, but this film has some very strong and beautiful imagery that makes the movie pure visual pleasure to observe.
--PolarisDiB
...with very little dialog. This is great, because one certain aspect of the genre tends to be a lot of dialog involving the quick-witted and their various repartees. This movie, however, could be watched with the sound completely off and not too terribly much would be missed. Not to say the sound is bad, oh no, the jazzy soundtrack and the crisp audio catching the little movements makes the slow, patient deliberation of the patients very compelling.
What's also really neat about this film is that the color cinematography is pretty fantastic. Usually when it comes to cinematography, black and white movies tend to stick out in my mind, but this film has some very strong and beautiful imagery that makes the movie pure visual pleasure to observe.
--PolarisDiB
- Polaris_DiB
- Apr 23, 2006
- Permalink
Looking for that big payday
"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.
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.
Well shot n well acted heist film.
I saw this for the first time recently.
The film moves at a slow pace but doesn't get boring. The bleak photography along with the non dialogue heist n the final scene gives the film a very serious tone.
The muted heist is inspired by Rififi.
The camaraderie between the two convicts, especially when one of em says that we have seen worse gives u that ominous feel.
The requirement of a shooter in a heist n its reason will surprise viewers.
The dream sequence is one of the most creepy n claustrophobic one.
- Fella_shibby
- Dec 11, 2020
- Permalink
Existential doom
THE RED CIRCLE (Jean-Pierre Melville - France/Italy 1970).
This might be the coolest film ever made, in the most literal sense of the term. The men here never lose control and never - not once - show their emotions. No dramatic outbursts in this film. Everyone is cool all the time. It's an abstract dream-world, where the men live by their own code, a gangster code with the values of the outside world conspicuously absent. In this masterfully filmed heist saga, Melville tackles the American crime thriller in his distinctly dark and desolate style, yet made in grand fashion with a hefty budget of ten million dollars and with four of the greatest French stars at the time. Alain Delon as the master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop, Italian star Gian-Maria Volonté as an escaped criminal and André Bourvil in an atypical role as the cynical police chief.
Melville described LE CERCLE ROUGE as his penultimate film and it is indeed a masterfully stylized policier. He also claimed he wanted to shoot a film noir in colour and in many ways he succeeded. The two primary influences for this film were John Huston's 1950 heist movie THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and Jules Dassin's RIFIFI (1955). But unlike these films, where we learn much about the background of the individual gang members, with all their petty needs and worries that motivate them, making clear these are not just ruthless underworld types, but ordinary individuals engaged in a world of everyday worries and human endeavour, Melville, though, tells us almost nothing about his criminals. Why was Corey (Alain Delon) in jail? Why was his associate, Vogel (Jean-Marie Volonté) arrested in the first place? Or why the ex-police marksman Jansen (Yves Montand) left the force, was it his alcoholism? We never learn the motivations behind their actions and never find out what drives these men. Women are even more absent than in his earlier films, with the "emotional" ties exclusively between men. They don't even seem to have personal lives. A sort of an emotional twilight zone and although the setting is not as abstract as in his earlier LE SAMOURAI (1967), Melville still sketches a very eerie world. Melville's favorite actor, Alain Delon, is perfect and almost outdoes himself in coolness, if imaginable.
Deliberately paced and with a length of over 140 minutes, Melville takes his time to tell the story, but its slow pace and length seems a perfect way to show the desolate world these men live in. Nothing is ever out of place in Melville's films and here it's no different, every little detail seemingly of pivotal importance for the story. Although LE SAMOURAI remains my favorite Melville film, even up there with the greatest films ever made, this one also belongs to the very best.
Camera Obscura --- 10/10
This might be the coolest film ever made, in the most literal sense of the term. The men here never lose control and never - not once - show their emotions. No dramatic outbursts in this film. Everyone is cool all the time. It's an abstract dream-world, where the men live by their own code, a gangster code with the values of the outside world conspicuously absent. In this masterfully filmed heist saga, Melville tackles the American crime thriller in his distinctly dark and desolate style, yet made in grand fashion with a hefty budget of ten million dollars and with four of the greatest French stars at the time. Alain Delon as the master thief, Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop, Italian star Gian-Maria Volonté as an escaped criminal and André Bourvil in an atypical role as the cynical police chief.
Melville described LE CERCLE ROUGE as his penultimate film and it is indeed a masterfully stylized policier. He also claimed he wanted to shoot a film noir in colour and in many ways he succeeded. The two primary influences for this film were John Huston's 1950 heist movie THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and Jules Dassin's RIFIFI (1955). But unlike these films, where we learn much about the background of the individual gang members, with all their petty needs and worries that motivate them, making clear these are not just ruthless underworld types, but ordinary individuals engaged in a world of everyday worries and human endeavour, Melville, though, tells us almost nothing about his criminals. Why was Corey (Alain Delon) in jail? Why was his associate, Vogel (Jean-Marie Volonté) arrested in the first place? Or why the ex-police marksman Jansen (Yves Montand) left the force, was it his alcoholism? We never learn the motivations behind their actions and never find out what drives these men. Women are even more absent than in his earlier films, with the "emotional" ties exclusively between men. They don't even seem to have personal lives. A sort of an emotional twilight zone and although the setting is not as abstract as in his earlier LE SAMOURAI (1967), Melville still sketches a very eerie world. Melville's favorite actor, Alain Delon, is perfect and almost outdoes himself in coolness, if imaginable.
Deliberately paced and with a length of over 140 minutes, Melville takes his time to tell the story, but its slow pace and length seems a perfect way to show the desolate world these men live in. Nothing is ever out of place in Melville's films and here it's no different, every little detail seemingly of pivotal importance for the story. Although LE SAMOURAI remains my favorite Melville film, even up there with the greatest films ever made, this one also belongs to the very best.
Camera Obscura --- 10/10
- Camera-Obscura
- Dec 6, 2006
- Permalink
The circle
The Mother of all French thrillers by Melville the Master
Viewed at the Golden Apricot Film Festival, Yerevan, 2017. The peak film of the Yerevan week was without a doubt "Le Cercle Rouge", the 1970 all star gangland thriller by master of the genre, Jean-Pierre Melville. Not as well known as his younger Nouvelle Vague disciples, Truffaut and Godard, but a much better filmmaker, Melville specialized in deliberately paced psychological thrillers in which top French stars delivered some of their best performances. At the very beginning we are informed that the cryptic title, The Red Circle, comes from a fatalistic Buddhist capsule of wisdom which states that no matter what their divergent paths may be all men end up in the same Red Circle. The three men with the divergent paths here are (1) Corey, a cool gangster just released from prison and hoping to go straight (Alain Delon), (2j Vogel, a desperado killer on the lam, (Italian star Gian Maria Volonte) and (3) Jansen, a retired expert police marksman with a drinking problem and questionable morals (Yves Montand). They come together by fate to successfully pull off a tremendous midnight jewelry heist on Ritzy Place Vendôme in central Paris but will all end up in the fatal Red Circle due to a complex network of interlocking intrigues and betrayals. Bravado, integrity, and betrayal are recurrent themes in Melville films. Pulling them in to the fatal circle is another iconic French actor, Bourvil, as the wily cat loving detective relentlessly tracking the escaped Vogel all across France from Marseille to Paris, there callously exploiting his major informant contacts. (François Périer, another major French character actor). The long heist scene filmed in complete silence is spellbinding and a tribute of sorts to a similar scene in the Jules Dassin technically perfect crime thriller "Rififi" of 1955. Together with "Le Samouaï", another Melville masterpiece also starring Delon, Red Circle is an enduring twin peaks of French thriller cinema. Breathless entertainment all the way, and the work of a master craftsman at the top of his game. Cercle Rouge was part of a five film tribute to Maître Melville in the Armenian capital on the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
- alexdeleonfilm
- Jul 20, 2017
- Permalink
Great Heist Movie
On the eve of his release after five years imprisoned, the thief Corey (Alain Delon) is contacted by one guard of the prison that offers him a jewelry heist. However Corey seeks out his former boss Rico (André Ekyan) and steals money from him. Rico sends two gangsters to hunt Corey down and retrieve the stolen amount. Meanwhile the criminal Vogel (Gian- Maria Volonte) is transported by train by the Police Officer Mattei (André Bourvil) and succeeds to escape. Corey drives from Marseille to Paris and Vogel hides in the trunk of his car. Corey finds him but does not object to ride Vogel to Paris hidden in the trunk. When the gangsters sent by Rico cut in Corey's car, Vogel saves him from the criminals, but Corey loses the money. Without money, Corey decides to heist the jewelry with Vogel and invites the former police detective Jansen (Yves Montand) to team-up with them. The trio executes a perfect heist but Rico is seeking revenge and Mattei is an unethical but efficient police officer capable to use any means to resolve the case.
"Le cercle rouge" is another great heist movie by the French director Jean-Pierre Melville, one of the best in the genre crime and thriller. The thin line between the behavior of police members and criminals is impressively realistic. The scenes are very detailed and there are long sequences in absolute silence along 140 minutes running time but the movie is developed in an adequate pace and is never boring. The dream cast with Alain Delon, Gian-Maria Volonte and Yves Montand among others makes this movie totally believable. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "O Circulo Vermelho" ("The Red Circle")
"Le cercle rouge" is another great heist movie by the French director Jean-Pierre Melville, one of the best in the genre crime and thriller. The thin line between the behavior of police members and criminals is impressively realistic. The scenes are very detailed and there are long sequences in absolute silence along 140 minutes running time but the movie is developed in an adequate pace and is never boring. The dream cast with Alain Delon, Gian-Maria Volonte and Yves Montand among others makes this movie totally believable. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "O Circulo Vermelho" ("The Red Circle")
- claudio_carvalho
- Feb 20, 2015
- Permalink
One of my new favorite heist pictures: a smooth success for Melville and his cast
Jean-Pierre Melville is a director I've only recently gotten acquainted with (I need to see Bob le Flambeur and Le Samourai again to fully grasp them), but in watching Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle, supposedly based on a saying in Buddhism) I realized I was watching as skillful and absorbing a crime film as I had seen in a quite some time. Though his film has dialog, it is mainly to keep the film's scenes rolling along, adherent to the plot. What kept me on the alert, even in seemingly mundane scenes/sequences, was the emphasis on the characters' movements, or behavior patterns. Melville has his story laid out, and he is careful to take his time to tell it (this could seem boring to some, but it does seem to work since he puts a little more emphasis on the weight of the characters/environments over plot).
Yet look at each of the four main players: Alain Deleon as Corey (just released from prison, scheming a new heist), Gian Maria Volonte as Vogel (escaping & on the lam from hand-cuffed custody, meets Corey by luck), Yves Montand as Jansen (an aged pro with many years of experience with weapons, a friend of Vogel), and Andre Bourvil as Mattei (an experienced investigator, who is on the look-out for Vogel, and on his toes with internal affairs). Each of these actors plays their parts with precision, detachment, and they each have their own kinds of moments that indicate to the audience what their personalities might be besides as criminals and cops. The heist sequence gives little hints, for example, like how Vogel cops-a-feel off a female statue while passing down the halls, or how Jansen takes out a flask and merely has a whiff of the contents (and what a dream this guy creates). Even Corey's movements involving a photograph of a woman arouse interest.
As absorbing and cool the story becomes, and as great the skills were to make it happen (via cinematographer Henri Decae, the editing, and the musical score by Eric Demarsan), it's the people on the screen that gain fascination, in how they stay true to their natures and ideals. Not a film to be missed by French new-wave enthusiasts, and modern-day crime movie buffs might want to take the 140 minutes to soak up the atmosphere of Melville's work. A suave piece of film-making that still ranks as one of my all-time favorites.
Yet look at each of the four main players: Alain Deleon as Corey (just released from prison, scheming a new heist), Gian Maria Volonte as Vogel (escaping & on the lam from hand-cuffed custody, meets Corey by luck), Yves Montand as Jansen (an aged pro with many years of experience with weapons, a friend of Vogel), and Andre Bourvil as Mattei (an experienced investigator, who is on the look-out for Vogel, and on his toes with internal affairs). Each of these actors plays their parts with precision, detachment, and they each have their own kinds of moments that indicate to the audience what their personalities might be besides as criminals and cops. The heist sequence gives little hints, for example, like how Vogel cops-a-feel off a female statue while passing down the halls, or how Jansen takes out a flask and merely has a whiff of the contents (and what a dream this guy creates). Even Corey's movements involving a photograph of a woman arouse interest.
As absorbing and cool the story becomes, and as great the skills were to make it happen (via cinematographer Henri Decae, the editing, and the musical score by Eric Demarsan), it's the people on the screen that gain fascination, in how they stay true to their natures and ideals. Not a film to be missed by French new-wave enthusiasts, and modern-day crime movie buffs might want to take the 140 minutes to soak up the atmosphere of Melville's work. A suave piece of film-making that still ranks as one of my all-time favorites.
- Quinoa1984
- Jan 13, 2004
- Permalink
A Stylish French Caper
Down-To-Earth Heist Movie
- Eumenides_0
- Aug 25, 2009
- Permalink
The loneliness of an experienced criminal
"Le cercle rouge" is a gangster movie with a very prolonged heist scene and as such reminds of "Du Rififi chez les hommes" (1955, Jules Dassin).
In his turn "Le cercle rouge" influenced the work of Joel and Ethan Coen, in particular "Millers crossing" (1990). It is funny how American filmmaking (Jules Dassin) influenced other American filmmaking (Coen brothers) via a detour trough France.
"Le cercle rouge" is more about ambience than about plot. The primary atmosphere is one of loneliness. This atmoshere is communicated partially by the use of pale colors.
Another way of communicating this atmosphere of loneliness is the lack of domesticity in the life of main character Corey (Alain Delon). This is in stark contrast with for example the life of detective Mattei (Bourvil) who has a daily welcome ceremony with his pet when he comes home. Or take fellow criminal Max (Jean Gabin) from "Touchez pas au grisbi" (1954, Jacques Becker). Max has a hidng place that is furnished as cosy as possible.
In his turn "Le cercle rouge" influenced the work of Joel and Ethan Coen, in particular "Millers crossing" (1990). It is funny how American filmmaking (Jules Dassin) influenced other American filmmaking (Coen brothers) via a detour trough France.
"Le cercle rouge" is more about ambience than about plot. The primary atmosphere is one of loneliness. This atmoshere is communicated partially by the use of pale colors.
Another way of communicating this atmosphere of loneliness is the lack of domesticity in the life of main character Corey (Alain Delon). This is in stark contrast with for example the life of detective Mattei (Bourvil) who has a daily welcome ceremony with his pet when he comes home. Or take fellow criminal Max (Jean Gabin) from "Touchez pas au grisbi" (1954, Jacques Becker). Max has a hidng place that is furnished as cosy as possible.
- frankde-jong
- Feb 28, 2024
- Permalink
Cinema lesson
In this crime film there is no noise with useless music. Simplicity and mastery do the work. Watching Alain Delon, Yves Montand and Bourvil is a real pleasure. Jean-Pierre Melville delivers a Masterpiece and I'm thankful for such greatness.
- laetitiapayombo
- May 12, 2018
- Permalink
Long, improbable, well acted, shallow, beautiful. And Alain Delon.
Here in THE RED CIRCLE... Melville goes it alone
First let me say I'm a fan of Melville. His compositions of a frame, his use of silence, his held shots, but THE RED CIRCLE is not one of Melville's better films.
Melville was always a minimalist, he was never a director who had much to say, 60% of his films were always... silence. So a 100 minute movie for Melville, was really only 40 mins of movie with 60 mins of style. His best movies, Le Doulous and Le Samourai, stay right around this 100 minute mark, coming in at 108 and 105 minutes respectfully. And at that length, they take Melville's minimalism and style as far as it can go, without slumping into tedium or filler.
At a 140 minutes Red Circle, falls headlong into tedium and filler. It is Melville's emptiest movie, with his customary 40 mins of story now horrifically stretched into two hours and 20 minutes. There's a lot to like in pieces about this movie; the train break, the trunk scene, but they are few and far between.
Two nearly identical long scenes of the inspector feeding his cats, the laughably ineffective hallucination scene, and the robbery itself, unlike his earlier works... are flawed uses of silences. Melville, perhaps believing his own hype, takes it too far, they are tedious, tedious scenes.
He tries to outdo Asphalt Jungle and Rififi and he fails miserably. And even edited down substantially the movie would still fail, because the 40mins of story that Le Doulos and Samourai had... were brilliant, RED CIRCLE is not. While Melville did the script for all three of these films, the first two were sourced from acclaimed novels of the time.
Here in RED CIRCLE Melville goes it alone, making up his own story, and it shows, in a confused and muddled film that ends as poorly and as unconvincingly as any film in recent memory.
All in all, not Melville's finest hour. So have to side here with Bluesdoctor, Bornjaded, Mike, and Steve and give this one a fail.
** out of ****.
Melville was always a minimalist, he was never a director who had much to say, 60% of his films were always... silence. So a 100 minute movie for Melville, was really only 40 mins of movie with 60 mins of style. His best movies, Le Doulous and Le Samourai, stay right around this 100 minute mark, coming in at 108 and 105 minutes respectfully. And at that length, they take Melville's minimalism and style as far as it can go, without slumping into tedium or filler.
At a 140 minutes Red Circle, falls headlong into tedium and filler. It is Melville's emptiest movie, with his customary 40 mins of story now horrifically stretched into two hours and 20 minutes. There's a lot to like in pieces about this movie; the train break, the trunk scene, but they are few and far between.
Two nearly identical long scenes of the inspector feeding his cats, the laughably ineffective hallucination scene, and the robbery itself, unlike his earlier works... are flawed uses of silences. Melville, perhaps believing his own hype, takes it too far, they are tedious, tedious scenes.
He tries to outdo Asphalt Jungle and Rififi and he fails miserably. And even edited down substantially the movie would still fail, because the 40mins of story that Le Doulos and Samourai had... were brilliant, RED CIRCLE is not. While Melville did the script for all three of these films, the first two were sourced from acclaimed novels of the time.
Here in RED CIRCLE Melville goes it alone, making up his own story, and it shows, in a confused and muddled film that ends as poorly and as unconvincingly as any film in recent memory.
All in all, not Melville's finest hour. So have to side here with Bluesdoctor, Bornjaded, Mike, and Steve and give this one a fail.
** out of ****.
- grendel-37
- Jun 22, 2005
- Permalink
As Good As It Gets
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.
- writers_reign
- Jul 27, 2003
- Permalink
We are all guilty
Commissaire Mattei(André Bourvil) is a single with a little gun who loves cats and his boss at the Paris police department is a philosopher who knows that even the police becomes sooner or later guilty. That is what the film is all about. And a jewel robbery at the place Vendome.
Corey (Delon) brings the plan from prison, Vogel(Volonté)joins him and helps him against two tough guys, who are after him, because he took mafioso Ricos(Andre Eycan) money, while Rico already took Coreys girl friend and left him very much alone for five years in jail. Corey and Vogel find a third man, Jansen(Montand), a former police officer and sniper who opens a security lock by shooting special hand made ammunition into a hole. A perfect plan and cooperation, but they have to sell the booty and there is Mattei in the role of a buyer in disguise. The circle closes. Running to help each other they are shot by the cat loving Mattei and his little pistol.
It took Melville 20 years he says to make a robbery film after he failed to get a contract for RIFFIFI. Melville wrote the screenplay and filmed in the south of France and in Paris of yesteryear. The great Henri Decae is as usual the lighting cameraman. It is the one before last picture of Melvilles who died after another film with Delon in 1972.
Melville actually wanted Belmondo instead of Volonté, he didn't like that Italian at all, but Volonté-Vogel is an excellent fugitive and gives next to Bourvil the most convincing performance. But mind you: Melville notes, that Volonté is an instinctive actor, a strange character, very wearying and absolutely impossible on a French set. Melville didn't like him at all and didn't want to work with him ever again.
Melville is wrong. Volonté give the most lively character in the nowhere of not so many interesting characters. You can see what he is feeling being chased by Mattei and his little dangerous gun and all the dogs of France in winter 70. A wild actor.
Also André Bourvil, who passed away close to the time of the filming. He also was not first choice, but definitely a great substitute. He carries the instinct of a lonely hunter through the whole film and gets in the end his chance to become guilty once more.
Jansen has entered at night the jewelry shop with a rifle and a tripod but risks eventually freehandedly a successful shot. When he meets Delon the first time we already know that the elegant Jansen has a severe drinking problem. After the robbery Montand renounces to take his part of the booty and mentions to Delon, who looks up to him, that he only got into the red circle, because he wanted to take revenge on the inhabitants of his wardrobe. Delon doesn't catch what he means. The audience recalls having seen Montand in a great scene in his haunted house fighting helplessly nightmare creatures that come out of the wardrobe and attack him. At that time a very rare scene, one recalls a long time after. I bet it was ever so difficult to arrange and direct that stuff at a time no one imagined the coming days of digital movie making. Great artwork when art was made by hand.
We sure will remember a crew like the actors, still it seems even after 33 years this one stays the less popular of the six thrillers of Melville. What is wrong with it? I am afraid one doesn't take much interest in those three actors (showing three criminals) and their police hunter. We learn too little about Corey and his fatal 5 years away from his beautiful girl(Anna Douking). Montand is still a great sniper, but what made him become a drinking man with funny creatures in his wardrobe. Delon acts as if he is in an earlier adventure of the samourai, Volonté is the man in the trunk of Delons American car and superbly moving and Mattei is swell to look at, a great actor at the edge of his life. But how could he ever possibly doubt that all are guilty ?
In an interview Melville states, that there is no woman in the film. Not in the very red circle, but I remember well that jolly good looking female Anna Douking (with no future career). We are in the 70s. There in fact rises a woman from the bed of an old mafioso wearing nothing and walks slowly to the door to listen to the voice of her old lover Delon. Bardot did something like that 10 years earlier. This time Melville was directing. Well done.
The RED CERCLE has certainly added a few but not many glittering gems to film history. The robbery at Place Vendome and Montands wonder bullet the inhabitants of the wardrobe and Volonté escaping Bouvil in white underwear and carrying his trousers carefully across a stream. That is too little for a great gangster and robbery movie. But the 110 minutes never bore you and it is a game on a high level. And there are probably some secrets you learn when you see the film over and over again. None of the secrets is that we are all guilty and the late Francois Perier is also featured.
Michael Zabel
Corey (Delon) brings the plan from prison, Vogel(Volonté)joins him and helps him against two tough guys, who are after him, because he took mafioso Ricos(Andre Eycan) money, while Rico already took Coreys girl friend and left him very much alone for five years in jail. Corey and Vogel find a third man, Jansen(Montand), a former police officer and sniper who opens a security lock by shooting special hand made ammunition into a hole. A perfect plan and cooperation, but they have to sell the booty and there is Mattei in the role of a buyer in disguise. The circle closes. Running to help each other they are shot by the cat loving Mattei and his little pistol.
It took Melville 20 years he says to make a robbery film after he failed to get a contract for RIFFIFI. Melville wrote the screenplay and filmed in the south of France and in Paris of yesteryear. The great Henri Decae is as usual the lighting cameraman. It is the one before last picture of Melvilles who died after another film with Delon in 1972.
Melville actually wanted Belmondo instead of Volonté, he didn't like that Italian at all, but Volonté-Vogel is an excellent fugitive and gives next to Bourvil the most convincing performance. But mind you: Melville notes, that Volonté is an instinctive actor, a strange character, very wearying and absolutely impossible on a French set. Melville didn't like him at all and didn't want to work with him ever again.
Melville is wrong. Volonté give the most lively character in the nowhere of not so many interesting characters. You can see what he is feeling being chased by Mattei and his little dangerous gun and all the dogs of France in winter 70. A wild actor.
Also André Bourvil, who passed away close to the time of the filming. He also was not first choice, but definitely a great substitute. He carries the instinct of a lonely hunter through the whole film and gets in the end his chance to become guilty once more.
Jansen has entered at night the jewelry shop with a rifle and a tripod but risks eventually freehandedly a successful shot. When he meets Delon the first time we already know that the elegant Jansen has a severe drinking problem. After the robbery Montand renounces to take his part of the booty and mentions to Delon, who looks up to him, that he only got into the red circle, because he wanted to take revenge on the inhabitants of his wardrobe. Delon doesn't catch what he means. The audience recalls having seen Montand in a great scene in his haunted house fighting helplessly nightmare creatures that come out of the wardrobe and attack him. At that time a very rare scene, one recalls a long time after. I bet it was ever so difficult to arrange and direct that stuff at a time no one imagined the coming days of digital movie making. Great artwork when art was made by hand.
We sure will remember a crew like the actors, still it seems even after 33 years this one stays the less popular of the six thrillers of Melville. What is wrong with it? I am afraid one doesn't take much interest in those three actors (showing three criminals) and their police hunter. We learn too little about Corey and his fatal 5 years away from his beautiful girl(Anna Douking). Montand is still a great sniper, but what made him become a drinking man with funny creatures in his wardrobe. Delon acts as if he is in an earlier adventure of the samourai, Volonté is the man in the trunk of Delons American car and superbly moving and Mattei is swell to look at, a great actor at the edge of his life. But how could he ever possibly doubt that all are guilty ?
In an interview Melville states, that there is no woman in the film. Not in the very red circle, but I remember well that jolly good looking female Anna Douking (with no future career). We are in the 70s. There in fact rises a woman from the bed of an old mafioso wearing nothing and walks slowly to the door to listen to the voice of her old lover Delon. Bardot did something like that 10 years earlier. This time Melville was directing. Well done.
The RED CERCLE has certainly added a few but not many glittering gems to film history. The robbery at Place Vendome and Montands wonder bullet the inhabitants of the wardrobe and Volonté escaping Bouvil in white underwear and carrying his trousers carefully across a stream. That is too little for a great gangster and robbery movie. But the 110 minutes never bore you and it is a game on a high level. And there are probably some secrets you learn when you see the film over and over again. None of the secrets is that we are all guilty and the late Francois Perier is also featured.
Michael Zabel
- luckysilien
- Jun 20, 2003
- Permalink
The master's trade mark.
Here in this film, you have so many elements that you already have in other features from Melville. Pictural and soundly. For instance the crows roars, when Delon and Maria Volonte meet, in the countryside, beside Delon's car trunk; the same you have in ARMY OF SHADOWS, when Ventura walks in the countryside, near the prisonner camp, or the farm. Second the rattling sound during the jewellery heist, when the alarm system switches off, the same sound that you have in ARMY OF SHADOWS, during the scene where the resistants in the ambulance try to pull the escape of Felix, from the Lyon prison. And the scene where Yves Montand, the former cop and sharp shooter decides to get rid of the tripod to pull the trigger against the alarm system button, the same scheme as Denis Manuel removes the rifle lense in LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE, during the armored truck heist, or more precisely against the policeman on his motorcycle. Heist sequence of course makes us think about RIFIFI scene, dialogue free outstanding moment. And Yves Montand gives here one of his best performances ever. The highlight is during the last seconds of the heist, just before he leaves the jewellery lobby, taking a look, a long look at the alarm lock, which gave him his psychological freedom; the lock that proved him he was not finished. Terrific scene. Anyway his character is full of.nobility, refusing his cut on the loot and offering his help to his partners till the very end of the affair. Only Melville could give us this. Only him.
- searchanddestroy-1
- Jul 21, 2021
- Permalink
This is pure majesty
"Between shooting two men six feet away and hitting a target at 100 feet there's a certain difference. It's the difference between an amateur and a professional. And, despite all appearances, I'm not professional."
Cool, stylish, slick, professional, call it what you will, it's a winner. Everyone is on top of their game.
This is pure majesty, silent majesty!
Cool, stylish, slick, professional, call it what you will, it's a winner. Everyone is on top of their game.
This is pure majesty, silent majesty!
Melville's masterpiece?
- JasparLamarCrabb
- Sep 5, 2010
- Permalink
Some curious twists for an American viewer used to faster editing, but slow in the end.
- secondtake
- Apr 16, 2010
- Permalink
"Tous les hommes sont coupables."
This is Jean-Pierre Melville's twelfth film and his most commercially successful. He regarded it as his magnum opus although for this viewer at any rate that distinction belongs to 'L'Armée des Ombres'. He jokingly denied ever directing the disappointing 'Un Flic' and died considering 'Le Cercle Rouge' to be his final film.
What is certain is that in watching this stylish masterpiece of crime cinema, described by it's director as "a digest of all the thriller-type films I have made", one is witnessing a master of his craft in full flow and at the top of his game. The editing is deft, especially in the extended heist sequence, Henri Decae's muted blue/grey palette is mesmerising, Eric de Marsan's jazzy scoring is spot on and the performances top notch.
The most interesting piece of casting, ostensibly against type, is that of Bourvil whose deadpan style suits his character perfectly. His performance is even more praiseworthy in that he was obliged to use morphine thoughout filming to kill the pain of the cancer that was to claim his life a month before the film's release. Alain Delon is again wonderfully impassive, Yves Montand quietly steals all of his scenes and a well-dubbed Gian Maria Volonté plays the role originally intended for Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Although it is generally considered that the jewel robbery is a nod to 'Rififi', Melville claimed to have had the idea of a wordless heist before Jules Dassin came to France in 1953. The fate of the thieves however again shows the undeniable influence of Huston's 'Asphalt Jungle' on Melville's work.
Melville once expressed doubts as to where his films would be in fifty years time. He needn't have worried.
What is certain is that in watching this stylish masterpiece of crime cinema, described by it's director as "a digest of all the thriller-type films I have made", one is witnessing a master of his craft in full flow and at the top of his game. The editing is deft, especially in the extended heist sequence, Henri Decae's muted blue/grey palette is mesmerising, Eric de Marsan's jazzy scoring is spot on and the performances top notch.
The most interesting piece of casting, ostensibly against type, is that of Bourvil whose deadpan style suits his character perfectly. His performance is even more praiseworthy in that he was obliged to use morphine thoughout filming to kill the pain of the cancer that was to claim his life a month before the film's release. Alain Delon is again wonderfully impassive, Yves Montand quietly steals all of his scenes and a well-dubbed Gian Maria Volonté plays the role originally intended for Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Although it is generally considered that the jewel robbery is a nod to 'Rififi', Melville claimed to have had the idea of a wordless heist before Jules Dassin came to France in 1953. The fate of the thieves however again shows the undeniable influence of Huston's 'Asphalt Jungle' on Melville's work.
Melville once expressed doubts as to where his films would be in fifty years time. He needn't have worried.
- brogmiller
- Feb 19, 2023
- Permalink
AFter a great first hour it sort of peters out
A French Caper film who's recently restored version has been making the festival and art house circuit.
The plot involves a man released from prison on the same day another man escapes from police custody on a moving train. Their lives intersect and robbery is committed....
The reviews for this re-release were glowing and when I discovered that Video Search of Miami had a copy I sent for it figuring that its the same price as a trip to The Film Forum to see it.
When the disc came I sat and watched the first 40 minutes before being called away. I loved what I saw and couldn't wait to see it again.
Six months later I have the time to sit and watch and starting from the beginning I revisit the first 40 minutes and travel on into the rest of the film.
Having made it to the end I have to say that I heartily recommend the first hour of this film. This is a film that brilliantly sets a mood and a place and the possibility that something great will happen. Unfortunately once the film gets to a certain point all the possibility runs away like the rain that soaks much of the film.
The trouble is that nothing is explained. We don't know what the job is until the jewelry store is cased. Characters come and go as if they will mean something and in the end nothing does. Plot lines are dropped, Corey, the released prisoner is being hunted by the mob and after a certain point that just ceases to be included until a moment of two later on when the crime boss he robs talks to the prison guard who laid out the "job". Things just are.
In the end this is a just a run of the mill crime story with a great first third.
Another problem is that the police inspector takes center stage for most of the later part of the film and while he is an interesting character, he just doesn't do anything interesting. This film is full of interesting people and events but nothing connects to anyone. So much feels left out, to the point that I can only wonder at what sort of a mess the short version was.
Can I recommend it? Well maybe, yea, sort of.
Its not bad it just sort of wanders off into "deep meaning" that means nothing.
Frankly Criterion is coming out with a special edition of this and I was watching it so I could decide whether to replace it. I'm not. Although I have a nasty feeling this is going to become one of those movies I keep re-watching hoping to get it, like Heaven and Earth, a Japanese samurai movie I've seen several times and never liked simply because I keep thinking I'm missing something.
That said the first chunk of this is really good. Hope for it to be on cable and to have a blackout occur an hour in so you won't be disappointed.
The plot involves a man released from prison on the same day another man escapes from police custody on a moving train. Their lives intersect and robbery is committed....
The reviews for this re-release were glowing and when I discovered that Video Search of Miami had a copy I sent for it figuring that its the same price as a trip to The Film Forum to see it.
When the disc came I sat and watched the first 40 minutes before being called away. I loved what I saw and couldn't wait to see it again.
Six months later I have the time to sit and watch and starting from the beginning I revisit the first 40 minutes and travel on into the rest of the film.
Having made it to the end I have to say that I heartily recommend the first hour of this film. This is a film that brilliantly sets a mood and a place and the possibility that something great will happen. Unfortunately once the film gets to a certain point all the possibility runs away like the rain that soaks much of the film.
The trouble is that nothing is explained. We don't know what the job is until the jewelry store is cased. Characters come and go as if they will mean something and in the end nothing does. Plot lines are dropped, Corey, the released prisoner is being hunted by the mob and after a certain point that just ceases to be included until a moment of two later on when the crime boss he robs talks to the prison guard who laid out the "job". Things just are.
In the end this is a just a run of the mill crime story with a great first third.
Another problem is that the police inspector takes center stage for most of the later part of the film and while he is an interesting character, he just doesn't do anything interesting. This film is full of interesting people and events but nothing connects to anyone. So much feels left out, to the point that I can only wonder at what sort of a mess the short version was.
Can I recommend it? Well maybe, yea, sort of.
Its not bad it just sort of wanders off into "deep meaning" that means nothing.
Frankly Criterion is coming out with a special edition of this and I was watching it so I could decide whether to replace it. I'm not. Although I have a nasty feeling this is going to become one of those movies I keep re-watching hoping to get it, like Heaven and Earth, a Japanese samurai movie I've seen several times and never liked simply because I keep thinking I'm missing something.
That said the first chunk of this is really good. Hope for it to be on cable and to have a blackout occur an hour in so you won't be disappointed.
- dbborroughs
- Jan 18, 2008
- Permalink
There is a cool, relentless precision to Melville's flawless crime classic.
Not only one of iconoclast Jean-Pierre Melville's most highly regarded films, but still hugely influential for many filmmakers, the lodestone for which a great number of crime features still rely heavily upon, name any quality heist film, and you will readily see echoes of Melville's iconic work. From the very first scene on the train with Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté) handcuffed to taciturn, cat-loving cop Mattei (André Bourvil) the maestro Melville creates a bleak, unflinchingly cold milieu, with little being said, the tension is absolute, and for reasons inexplicable your allegiances reside with Volonté, his guilt over his undisclosed crime somehow immaterial, and it is this moral ambiguity that features so strongly in 'Le Cercle Rouge'.
There's a sublime metronomic quality at work in 'Le Cercle Rouge', a cool, relentless precision to Melville's flawless filmmaking, these Stoic characters inexorably drawn together by the merciless mechanics of crime, those that have a predilection, or talent to do it, Corey (Alain Delon) and Vogel's pragmatic need to elude capture with steely-eyed enigma Mattei's singularly pragmatic approach to stopping him makes for rarely less than thrilling cinema!
While the immaculately tense, nerve-frying heist is meticulously executed with the filmmaker's signature flair for precision and verisimilitude, this is also where we see the curious re-birth of hopeless alcoholic Jansen (Yves Montand) for me, the film's most innately fascinating character, when we first see him he is almost entirely insensible due to a chronic case of the DTs; and yet, the ex-police sharpshooter is now the most integral member of this gang of recidivist criminals, once again there is a curious moral ambivalence at work, while Jansen is wholly reborn by crime, some of Mattei's actions seem positively nefarious in comparison!
The word masterpiece is oft utilized but rarely is it more meritoriously earned than in Jean-Pierre Melville's uncommonly spare and sinuous crime classic 'Le Cercle Rouge'. A true marvel of razor-sharp cinematic understatement, like dead-eyed Jensen's perfectly calibrated rifle, crime cinema in the equally steady hands of a master craftsman is no less lethal a proposition. The final words must come from the film itself; 'Men are guilty. They come into the world innocent, but it doesn't last!...we ALL change...for the worse!
There's a sublime metronomic quality at work in 'Le Cercle Rouge', a cool, relentless precision to Melville's flawless filmmaking, these Stoic characters inexorably drawn together by the merciless mechanics of crime, those that have a predilection, or talent to do it, Corey (Alain Delon) and Vogel's pragmatic need to elude capture with steely-eyed enigma Mattei's singularly pragmatic approach to stopping him makes for rarely less than thrilling cinema!
While the immaculately tense, nerve-frying heist is meticulously executed with the filmmaker's signature flair for precision and verisimilitude, this is also where we see the curious re-birth of hopeless alcoholic Jansen (Yves Montand) for me, the film's most innately fascinating character, when we first see him he is almost entirely insensible due to a chronic case of the DTs; and yet, the ex-police sharpshooter is now the most integral member of this gang of recidivist criminals, once again there is a curious moral ambivalence at work, while Jansen is wholly reborn by crime, some of Mattei's actions seem positively nefarious in comparison!
The word masterpiece is oft utilized but rarely is it more meritoriously earned than in Jean-Pierre Melville's uncommonly spare and sinuous crime classic 'Le Cercle Rouge'. A true marvel of razor-sharp cinematic understatement, like dead-eyed Jensen's perfectly calibrated rifle, crime cinema in the equally steady hands of a master craftsman is no less lethal a proposition. The final words must come from the film itself; 'Men are guilty. They come into the world innocent, but it doesn't last!...we ALL change...for the worse!
- Weirdling_Wolf
- Apr 29, 2021
- Permalink
Of its time... for better or worse
scripters' potboiler -