Le cercle rouge (1970)
(The Red Circle)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: col 140m
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Alain Delon, André Bourvil, Gian-Maria Volonté, Yves Montand
Synopsis:
A suspected criminal escapes the clutches of the policeman escorting him by train and falls in with a just-released crook who has been offered a sure thing by a prison warder seeking early retirement. Together they team up and go ahead with the heist, aided by an alcoholic former police marksman, but the cop closes in all the while.
Review:
The title is from an Eastern quotation alluding to the common fate of disparate characters, in Melville's case those who inhabit the mean streets of the criminal underworld and the police whose behaviour and tactics closely matches their quarry's. It's not as good as Le Deuxième Souffle, but it has that deliberate and compelling quality we recognise as belonging to the director's world, where procedure and the inexorable logic of relationships, professional or otherwise, are the key components.
(The Red Circle)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: col 140m
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Alain Delon, André Bourvil, Gian-Maria Volonté, Yves Montand
Synopsis:
A suspected criminal escapes the clutches of the policeman escorting him by train and falls in with a just-released crook who has been offered a sure thing by a prison warder seeking early retirement. Together they team up and go ahead with the heist, aided by an alcoholic former police marksman, but the cop closes in all the while.
Review:
The title is from an Eastern quotation alluding to the common fate of disparate characters, in Melville's case those who inhabit the mean streets of the criminal underworld and the police whose behaviour and tactics closely matches their quarry's. It's not as good as Le Deuxième Souffle, but it has that deliberate and compelling quality we recognise as belonging to the director's world, where procedure and the inexorable logic of relationships, professional or otherwise, are the key components.
(The Red Circle)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: col 140m
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Cast: Alain Delon, André Bourvil, Gian-Maria Volonté, Yves Montand
Synopsis:
A suspected criminal escapes the clutches of the policeman escorting him by train and falls in with a just-released crook who has been offered a sure thing by a prison warder seeking early retirement. Together they team up and go ahead with the heist, aided by an alcoholic former police marksman, but the cop closes in all the while.
Review:
The title is from an Eastern quotation alluding to the common fate of disparate characters, in Melville's case those who inhabit the mean streets of the criminal underworld and the police whose behaviour and tactics closely matches their quarry's. It's not as good as Le Deuxième Souffle, but it has that deliberate and compelling quality we recognise as belonging to the director's world, where procedure and the inexorable logic of relationships, professional or otherwise, are the key components.