Movie Details
| Title: | Le Cercle Rouge | |
| Director: | Jean-Pierre Melville | |
| Year: | 1970 | |
| Genre: | Crime | |
| Times Seen: | 2 | |
| Last Seen: | 01.03.26 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (8)
- Army of Shadows
- Bob le flambeur
- Le Deuxieme Souffle
- Le Doulos
- Les Enfants Terribles
- Un Flic
- Le Samourai
- Le Silence de la Mer
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 01.03.26 | Internet | My holiday break is just about over. It's been a fun couple weeks and choosing movies over video games has resulted in a nice reminder of how much I love them. I've mostly watched new stuff or stuff that's been on my hd a while though and I wanted to end on a movie I knew was good. Something that's not Zodiac or Heat which I feel like I watch all the time. But when I got to thinking about what movie I wanted to see, it took a while. Like, what's a movie you know is good but haven't seen in a while? I thought of this. Le Cercle Rouge (or "The Red Circle") is the movie that sticks in my memory as what tipped me over into being a Jean-Pierre Melville fan. I saw it about twenty years ago and my note was sparse (they mostly were back then) but I said I found myself liking it by the end. Since then, it's grown fonder in my memory as an example of a deliberately-paced movie that's sure of itself and knows it has your attention and pays off by the end. I made practice back then of renting criterion discs through netflix if I hadn't seen them before or wasn't sure I wanted to own them. If I liked them enough, I'd buy them afterward. This is one of the few that I did that with (I wish I'd done that more to be honest). But I haven't seen it since then. I've seen eight other Melville movies but not this one. I still like it a lot. Seeing it now, I don't find it slow so much as methodical, borderline procedural in places. Just like other movies I like a lot, we spend a lot of time in this movie watching people do stuff without talking. We follow along with what's happening no problem, but there's no reason for the character to be talking so he doesn't. There's also not much score which I think accentuates the silence. Add on a soundtrack which sounds completely assembled in post and you have some moments which are literally silent because they didn't Foley anything and had no location sound. But that's the charm. You're with these guys, you're one of the crew, you're in the red circle with them. I hate to say this, but this movie is sort of like a early 70s French Heat. I didn't remember following the police inspector as much as we do, seeing how his world works and his plans to catch this escaped prisoner who hooks up with Alain Delon by happenstance and winds up doing a job with him. It's not exactly 50/50 like Heat but it's close, and it also share a comprehensive nature of their worlds, not to mention a standout heist scene. Did I just watch Heat again? One thing I'm not sure of is where the sits in the context of French cinema. It doesn't seem like this deliberate detail-oriented take on the criminal underworld was in vogue in 1970? Maybe it was? Looking at his filmography it makes sense but were noirs still a think in the mid-60s when he made Le deuxieme souffle? Was he out of touch or did audiences eat this up? I'm not sure, but it took 20-some years for America to catch up... with Heat. |
| 06.30.06 | Netflix | Tonight is Melville night. First up is this crime "epic" following Alain Delon and... someone else as criminals met upon by fate who pull off a major jewel heist in Rififi fashion and then try to fence it. For two hours twenty minutes, Melville certainly takes his time and while watching I thought there were some stretches there that were pretty damn slow, but the funny thing is now, like a minute after it's ended, I have a feeling of really living with those guys and following along with their plans. It's kind of a cool feeling, and it's leaving me really liking the movie I just saw. |
