Film Review | Le Cercle Rouge

Director Jean-Pierre Melville, cited as the Godfather of Nouvelle Vague, had already cemented his position as the master of the French gangster movie with Le deuxième soufflé in 1966, but it was his stone-cold classics of the genre Le Samouraï (1967) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970) that he gave us some of world cinema’s most iconic images.

Both feature in the lead role Alain Delon, something of a muse to the director and the leading vedette (star) of his generation. No actor epitomised the cold-eyed cool and hard-as-nails attitude quite like the impossibly handsome Delon, who captured the silent menace of the gritty rogue often with little more than an icy stare.

The plot is familiar – a con (Delon plays jewel thief Corey) – is just out of nick and can’t quite manage to go straight and is lured back into one high-stakes last job. On the same day, the murderous Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte) makes a daring exit from a moving train and escapes the custody of the intellectual police chief Commissaire Mattei.

Corey and Vogel’s paths cross after Corey robs his old mob boss then flees town, only for Vogel to stow away in the trunk of his car.

Together they hatch a daring heist plot, enlisting an ex-police sharpshooter (the masterful Yves Montand). Cue a catalogue of double-crosses, mistrust and the inevitable sharp twist of fate, all presented with style and beautifully choreographed set pieces.

That this amazing film is now given the Blu-Ray release, with excellent extras including a documentary, is testament to its standing not just in the firmament of the French gangster genre, but in the broader history of cinema.

Posted: 12/10/2010