Army of Shadows
1969 ‘L'Armée des ombres’ Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Synopsis
Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows is Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece about the French Resistance underground fighters who must grapple with their own brand of honor in their battle against Hitler’s regime.
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After witnessing the masterpieces that are Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge, I've been meaning to dive into this one for quite some time now, having been putting it off for far too long and for no good reason.
Army of Shadows is a WWII movie that is unlike what you would normally expect from your usual war flicks. It doesn't offer instant gratification with bullets and explosions, nor does it go for shock-and-awe by shoving grisly images in your face. Rather, it is a film of atmosphere and tension among the individuals of the French Resistance, who often find themselves in dangerous situations and moral dilemmas.
The movie is in no way glorifying the Resistance. It's quite clear that…
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At the peak of his all too short career, Jean-Pierre Melville squeezed in this French resistance masterpiece between his two highest acclaimed crime-movies, Le samouraï and Le cercle rouge
I've been a huge fan of Melville since I first saw a movie by him, and I've yet to watch a bad one from him. Before his death at the age of 55 he only directed 13 feature films, so I've been saving a few of those experiences for whenever I really feel like watching something special. My list of remaining Melville-movies to look forward to are getting sadly short, but thankfully his movies have huge revisit value.
It's a return for Melville to take on WWII, as his feature film…
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I've been delaying my study on Melville's work for far too long now. After seen this movie in some great lists of favorites around, I've finally decided to watch it. And how impressive it is.
It's well-known that primness is the word that best describes Melville's works, stylistically speaking; this movie is not a exception. Painted with tons of gray and nocturnal blue, Army of Shadows portrays a war. But not a common war, a war that happens inside the war institutions, inside the militancy, a war caused by human insecurity, fear and loyalty. Like in Le Samouraï where the French director played brilliantly with the noir genre, here he'll play with the war genre, turning it upside down and…
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Wow what a movie. I was in awe through a lot of it; Melville was a fucking master, it's a shame he died early.
The movie is about a group of French resistance fighters during the war.
To say it's a beautiful movie isn't doing it justice. The great French scenery and amazing direction, wow. The movie itself is riveting, thrilling. There's one scene near the beginning that's particularly great. Really great acting from a bunch of good characters. I just finished watching it so I'm a bit short on words, but amazing amazing movie.
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L'armée des ombres
"The French resistance in WWII are shown here in a very different way to any other depiction I have seen. The film is very bleak - the colours, the sound, the course of events. Absolutely brilliant." -
Through Army of Shadows, Jean-Pierre Melville takes the mystique of French Resistance during World War II and shows it for what it really was. Opening in October of 1942 and ending a year later. During that year, we follow various members of the French Resistance as we get a very exclusive inside look at their missions and all the risk and terror that comes with fighting against Nazi-occupation at a time when Germany was still in control of much of Europe. Melville does not glamorize their duties, there are no elaborate heists or professional looking killings. A rescue attempt that has the build-up to compare with the heist scene from his style-drive crime-drama, Le Cercle Rouge (1970), quickly evaporates with…
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I was bored by this, cinephiles might love this movie, but I was annoyed by the long silences and scenes that seemed unnecessary, it does have an interesting theme with the unromantically portrayed rebels and the moral lines they follow. They are shown as doing very little really in terms of advancing the rebellion, they just seem to distract the Germans a bit. I also was confused by the double narrator, was it even a double narrator?
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A great movie containing scenes with great tension and a powerful ending. The story is fascinating.
I gave it a slender rating as I consider the movie to lack soul; It didn't serve my needs to keep my attention nor did it educate me. -
Quiet, gritty, intense, tragic.
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Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows took me a little while to get used to, perhaps because I was expecting something of a straightforward narrative rather than cutting between episodes with a little bit of voice over summary bridging gaps. I was, however, instantly taken with the cold and rainy dark blue tinge of the film.
By the end I was fully on board with where it was taking me, and I think a second viewing would be even more rewarding. The movie uses a lot of subtle suggestion and I have to admit that I might have been too ignorant of history to follow it at many points. There are a few shots and bits of dialogue that I didn't…
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Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece is a twisty, backstabbing, noir-ish WWII thriller of the highest order. I originally saw the film during its 2006 restoration/first US release run while in Los Angeles and fell in love instantly with its dark, moody cinematography and strong turn by Lino Ventura. It also features one of my favorite film scores of all-time. The film is often a toss-up along with Le Cercle Rouge and Le Samourai as my favorite Melville, but after this most recent viewing I'm quite certain it has finally sealed the deal as #1.
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Quite possibly Melville's greatest cinematographic work, although Lino Ventura's leading role may leave something to be desired, an intriguing amble into the mechanisms, betrayals and deceit occurring in the hierarchy of the French Underground Resistance during WW2.
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After witnessing the masterpieces that are Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge, I've been meaning to dive into this one for quite some time now, having been putting it off for far too long and for no good reason.
Army of Shadows is a WWII movie that is unlike what you would normally expect from your usual war flicks. It doesn't offer instant gratification with bullets and explosions, nor does it go for shock-and-awe by shoving grisly images in your face. Rather, it is a film of atmosphere and tension among the individuals of the French Resistance, who often find themselves in dangerous situations and moral dilemmas.
The movie is in no way glorifying the Resistance. It's quite clear that…
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Something something something, masterpiece, blah blah blah, film student circle jerk, French whatever, yap yap yap... Why am I here? This is horseshit.
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Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpice about the French Resistance. The film has more of the feel of an existentialist noir than war film. The film is a deglamourization of war in which people come to realize who they really are and what drastic actions they are capable of under certain circumstances. A must see.