Product Description

Jean-Pierre Melvilles masterpiece about the French resistance against the Nazi Occupation went unreleased in the United States for thirty-seven years before its triumphant theatrical release in 2006. Atmospheric, gripping, and finally tragic, Army of Shadows is Melvilles most personal film, featuring veteran actors Lino Ventura and Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret as intrepid underground fighters who must face their own brand of honor and shadowy ethical codes. Set wholly in the dark recesses and back alleys of the war, Army of Shadows is a devastating, intimate look at the fight against evil in an already amoral world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8838 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-05-15
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 145 minutes

Amazon.com
Who would've guessed that the best film of 2006 would be a 37-year-old thriller about the French Resistance during World War II? Hailed as a masterpiece by an overwhelming majority of reputable critics, Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows wasn't officially released in America until 2006 (hence its appearance on many of that year's top-ten lists), but its reputation as a French classic was already well-established throughout Europe. Fully restored in 2004 and released in the U.S. by Rialto Pictures, it represents the gold standard of films about the French Resistance, based upon Joseph Kessel's 1943 novel and imbued with personal touches by Melville, an Alsatian Jew whose own involvement in the Resistance qualifies Army of Shadows as a semi-autobiographical exercise in somber nostalgia, as indicated by an opening quote echoing Melville's ironic belief that memories of Nazi occupation needn't always be traumatic.

Having lived through this history, Melville doesn't treat it lightly; in Army of Shadows, the threat of death hangs over every scene like a shroud. Unfolding with flawless precision, the plot begins in 1942 and focuses on a small, secretive band of Resistance fighters led by Gerbier (Lino Ventura), whose intuitive sense of danger lends additional suspense to the film's dark, atmospheric study of grace under pressure. While working in the classical tradition of the Hollywood films he admired, Melville breaks from convention with lengthy, deliberately paced scenes in which tension builds to a subtle yet almost unbearable intensity. With the possible exception of a brief and wryly humorous scene involving Resistance leader (and future Prime Minister) Gen. Charles de Gaulle, every scene in Army of Shadows supports Melville's predominant themes of solitude and futility. Melville's visually and thematically bleak outlook may prove challenging for some, but Army of Shadows is remarkably beautiful in its own way, and it gains power with each additional viewing through flawless development of memorable characters played by a first-rate cast. Especially memorable is Simone Signoret as Gerbier's boldly pragmatic ally Mathilde, a woman in a war of men, with a tragic vulnerability that ultimately decides her fate. As intellectually stimulating as it is thrilling to experience, Army of Shadows represents the triumphant zenith of Melville's posthumous recognition as a world-class auteur. Thanks to the Criterion Collection, this masterpiece can now be widely appreciated, along with Criterion's previous DVD releases of Melville's earlier classics Bob Le Flambeur, Le Samourai, and Le Cercle Rouge. --Jeff Shannon

On the DVDs
On disc 1 in this superior two-disc set, the meticulous 2004 restoration of Army of Shadows is presented in a new high-definition digital transfer supervised by cinematographer Pierre Lhomme. The audio commentary by French film historian Ginette Vincendeau is one of Criterion's finest to date; Vincendeau's scholarship is impeccable, her thematic observations are eloquently expressed, and her knowledge of French cinema is impressively thorough, placing Army of Shadows in a rich context of other films about the French Resistance. The supplements on disc 2 maintain Criterion's highest standards of archival research, beginning with "Jean-Pierre Melville: Filmmaker," a four-minute French TV news segment from 1968, in which Melville discusses the production of Army of Shadows. A new 2006 interview with cinematographer Pierre Lhomme (14:00) is accompanied by a restoration demonstration (7:10) and color-tone reference photos used during the restoration process. Also included is an 11-minute interview (also from 2006) with editor Françoise Bonnot.

A half-hour segment of the French TV show L'invite du dimanche, from March 1969, features behind-the scenes production footage and fascinating interviews with Melville, the primary cast of Army of Shadows, novelist Joseph Kessell, and French Resistance fighter André Dewavrin (whom Melville recruited to play Colonel Passy in Army of Shadows). "Melville et 'L'Armée Des Ombres'" ("Melville and Army of Shadows) is an excellent half-hour documentary featuring interviews of many of Melville's contemporaries (including director Bertrand Tavernier) sharing insights and anecdotes in an in-depth appreciation of Melville and Army of Shadows. A superb section devoted to the French Resistance includes "Le Journal de la Resistance," a riveting 33-minute documentary filmed in Paris in August 1944 (and narrated by Noel Coward), just as the final French insurrection and pending arrival of U.S. liberation troops were leading to Nazi surrender and massive celebration in the streets of Paris. A five-minute TV interview segment, from 1984, features Simone Signoret paying tribute to Lucie Aubrac, a Resistance fighter (also interviewed) who was a key inspiration for Signoret's character in Army of Shadows. Finally, disc 2 closes with a 23-minute excerpt from a 1973 episode of the French TV show Ouvrez les guillemets, in which several former members of the French Resistance discuss their clandestine activities during the Nazi occupation of France from 1940 to 1944. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

2006 movie of the year
This is a five star film, an absolutely important, necessary film with flawless acting and directing. Fans of Melville will enjoy a movie with his signature precision and history buffs will respect a film so honest in its portrayal. I can't think of a director more fitting to tell its tale. Melville gave credibility, accuracy and respect for those who lived through this terrifying time. This is one unique gem of a movie, a film that I feel blessed to have seen and absolutely deserving of movie of the year for its American release in 2006.

"Jackasses."
Jean-Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows" is a brilliant, slow-moving, and crushing cinematic treatise on morals and basic decency in a time where both have become obsolete.

The French Resistance of WWII has long been a subject of historical debate (who really was a Resistance fighter against the Third Reich and who merely claims to have been? why have the numbers inordinately increased since the end of the war?) and rightly so, but Melville doesn't get into the politics of legacy: he simply presents the grim story of five people who are doing the right thing despite all the attendant dangers because they know they should.

Set in 1942, the "hero" of the film is a small, unassuming civil engineer who looks every inch the average man: played by the stout, short and slightly obese Lino Ventura, Phillipe Gerbier looks like the sort of character who would be happily working on production line and staying clear out of the Gestapo's way. He isn't. Leader of the French Resistance in France, Ventura's Gerbiere is practical minded, steely as they come, and ruthless with respect to occupying German soldiers and his fellow conspirators. Making a ferocious and very fortunate escape from torture and death at the hands of the German police by stabbing a Wermacht soldier in the neck, hiding in a barbershop to change his appearance, and then promptly having the man who betrayed him garrotted, we learn that he is not a puffy idealist about to be misled by the best of intentions.

The resistance clique know each other only so well and are as different as can be, which makes the undying bond against Hitler's government even more puzzling. One is a wild, cowboyish French soldier on leave who agrees to Resistance activity because it mighr provide him with some excitement and also, on a more distant level, because he despises the Nazi Regime. Another is a very calm, cool French clerk who wears an ironic grin on his face in nearly every scene because he is aware that doom is imminent. Then there is the most crucial of them all along with Gerbiere: Mathilde, played by Simone Signoret, is practically a living advertisement for feminism--going so far as to attempt a rescue of her two fellow resisters by dressing up as a Gestapo nurse. (British agents and presumably French resisters actually pulled stuff like this off.)

The choices one has to when facing the reality of institutional evil is the chief subject of Melville's masterpiece: these five have to make choices that would render almost anyone paralyzed. Most of these choices are about the fate of one another, which makes it even worse. The ending is unforgettable. This is by no means a happy film or even one I'd want to watch again, but it is great in the same way that an epic of Camus or
Marcel hits the reader: it reminds us that we as men and women we have choices in even the worst situations, whether we decide to face that inconvenient fact or not.

French Resistance
Melville's dark and sombre attitude towards the French resistance in WW11. Miles away from the Hollywood heroics to instill an atmospheric brooding slow paced but engaging tour de force. Shot in blue/grey mood episotic but mounts in tension. Melville's study features strong acting, spatial styling as the events begin to unfold. Simone Signoret is a stand out among the fine cast.

The superb commentary, academic but accessible insight into Melville, the resistance is well worth a visit.