L'armée des ombres (1969)

L'armée des ombres (Army of Shadows) begins on 20 October 1942 when Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura), a high ranking specialist, is being transported to a Vichy camp. Later he is brought to the headquarters of Gestapo in Paris, but is able to run away. Gerbier belongs to the Resistance and in this movie we see a small group of them.

The director, Jean-Pierre Melville, made this movie based on Joseph Kessel book. Blue green colour dominates the film and like the title, the movie is gloomy with shadows. There are not many actions and the director avoided melodrama as much as possible. In the poster we see a man tied to a chair and we perhaps will think about tortures, but there is not physical torture like that and only see distorted faces as the result. One of the most powerful scenes must be the execution of traitor Paul Dounat. This young man waiting in agony while his would-be executors discussing what method should be used. He died with tears in his eyes and his executors have troubled expression.

The cast is solid, including Simone Signoret as Mathilde, the only female in the small group, but is very reliable. We can see how brave she is when she arranges to save Felix (Paul Crauchet) who has been caught by the Germans. However, when she becomes their weak link, the group must take a bitter step and eliminate her.

Jean-Pierre Cassel plays Jean François, who sacrifices himself by letting the Gestapo catches him so he can help in saving Felix. His sacrifice turns out to be useless. Worse, as he is caught under a false name, his friends - including his brother (Paul Meurisse) who is also in the Resistance but don't know he joins the group and vice versa - don't know what is happening to him.

The movie ends on 23 February 1943, when Mathilde is killed. Then we learn the tragic end of her 'killers'. The end credit song is very beautiful. Although slow, like most of Melville's works, the movie is rich with details, like the involvement of French police in the black market, how show business was in the war, and how far the Brits could help. The DVD contains very helpful commentary by historian Professor Ginette Vincendeau.