Army of Shadows

9.5 out of 10

Whatever films got everybody else excited this summer, I was impatiently waiting the Portland release of Army of Shadows. It had one of those drawn out releases, screening first in New York, LA, Chicago, etc. and the reviews were frustrating teases for a film I wouldn't get to see for months. A brand new film from Jean-Pierre Melville. Well, not really new: he made it over thirty years ago, but it's never been released in the US.

I love Melville's films. You can feel some of the same spirit of experimentation as the French New Wave, but Melville was really more of a contemporary than a member. He shared their interest in Film Noir, but took the dark determinism at the genre's core far more seriously. Godard and Truffaut could be dark, but there was always a little wink in it, a little dash of the humor and artistic playtime that illuminates their best work. Melville's films are austere and almost oppressively serious, but that's the stories he tells. The hit man of Le Samourai finds his protective facades crumbling and enemies closing in. Bob le flambeur is a brilliant thief and compulsive gambler who always loses more than he makes. They're gritty stories of despicable people, but Melville's starkly acute observations allow us to meet them on their own terms and, inevitably, discover the humanity of their tragedy. His films are often elegies, even if he must dig to find the redeeming qualities.

Army of Shadows is also an elegy, but for righteous heroes who easily deserve the praise of art and history: the French Resistance. The inherent drama and suspense of a covert movement is perfectly enhanced by the Melville style. Army of Shadows has a beautiful look with a very muted palate, mostly blacks, grays and browns with an occasional splash of red. Blue skies and yellow suns are nowhere to be seen, partly because it's winter and partly because life under the Nazis has become joyless. When we see a trip to London to meet with de Gaulle, the city seems brighter and happier. Despite relentless bombing, and the responsive blackouts and air-raid sirens, young ladies and lasses still dance and fall in love. Surely those things happened in occupied France, but could you really have a good time with Nazi soldiers just down the street? Those brief scenes in London help us understand what these men and women were fighting for, the simple pleasures that inspired them to join the Resistance and pay the dues of freedom.

I'm starting to weird me out, so I should mention that Melville doesn't shrink from the moral costs of the Resistance. An early scene depicts the execution of an informant. It's brutal and intimate, all the more so because they're inexperienced. They don't manage the quick clean kill that would help to assuage their guilt and have to look the informant in the eyes until the end. The execution may be justified but it still bothers the men who had to do it.

There are a few those mistakes that result from bad luck (it didn't rain at one location, so they added an effect that, of course, doesn't drip into the puddles) but if there's any significant flaw in Army of Shadows, it's that it focuses too much on the danger and suspense. In Army of Shadows we see some stuff with radios and an operation to smuggle downed Allied pilots out by submarine, but that's about it. The rest of the time is spent attempting to rescue one or another of their members from Nazi hands. Some people spend half the film in prison. There's plenty of drama in those elements and I found them satisfying as a story, but the History student in me would like to learn a little bit more about the Resistance's offensive actions. Sabotage? Guerilla warfare in the countryside? I know I shouldn't put the blame for my own ignorance on this film, but if I knew of a more comprehensive film on the French Resistance that was half as good as Army of Shadows, I'd throw it at the top of my Netflix cue right now.

Part of what I like about Melville is that he cuts through the bullshit cultural stereotypes that surround French cinema, both there and here in the US. His films are unmistakably French, but Melville doesn't play pretentious games of self-conscious philosophizing or crafting intimate emotional dramas. His films are about which way the gun is pointing, a concept that is universally understood but rarely developed as sublimely. Whenever somebody complains about 'boring' French cinema, point toward Army of Shadows.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville; written by Jean-Pierre Melville and Joseph Kessel (novel); starring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret

Viewed on 04Aug2006 at Cinema 21

posted by Jesse Zander Corum @ 4:17 PM