LE CERCLE ROUGE

LE CERCLE ROUGE (THE RED CIRCLE)

France/Italy, 1970

Directed by Jean Pierre Melville

Alain Delon

Yves Montand

Gian Maria Volonte

Corey (Alain Delon) is the young gun in the French underworld who has just been released from prison. Escaped convict Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) hides in the trunk of Corey's car. The two enlist the help of an alcoholic former cop (Yves Montand) for an elaborate jewelry-store robbery. Police inspector Mattei (Bourvil) whom Vogel escaped in the beginning of the film is on the case trying to recapture the criminals. He is not opposed to using blackmail techniques to get answers out of the unwilling witnesses and criminals brought in for questioning.

Part of the genius of Jean-Pierre Melville was that he was able to take the formal elements of the crime film and put a thoroughly individual stamp on them. His best films take the stuff of a thousand grade-B thrillers and invest them with a singular intelligence and quiet cool. On the surface, Le Cercle Rouge concerns two criminals thrown into a slightly uneasy alliance with a corrupt and alcoholic ex-cop to pull off a heist, but in Melville's hands this becomes a story about kindred spirits brought together through chance and unforeseen circumstance; their lives on the other side of the law have as much to do with their own personal sense of ethics and honor as those of the lawmen who struggle to track them down.

Melville's clean, elegant framing of shots and his appreciation of the value of silence gives this picture a spare but satisfying feel quite different from most European crime films, and the subtle but sharply etched performances of Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volonte, and Yves Montand are the ideal embodiment of Melville's notion that less is more.

In 1970, Le Cercle Rouge received a spotty release in the United States in a version cut by some 40 minutes; the uncut print finally received a belated American release in 2002, and in its fine form, Le Cercle Rouge reveals itself as a film whose subtle touch only adds to the tension and suspense it generates ? a valuable lesson for filmmakers who believe that the function of genre filmmaking is to slap the viewer about the face and neck.

BORSALINO & CO.

BORSALINO & CO.

France 1974

Directed by Jacques Deray

Alain Delon

Riccardo Cucciolla

Adolfo Lastretti

Gabriella Farinon

Catherine Rouvel

Inspired by Eugene Saccomano's novel THE BANDITS OF MARSEILLES, masterful crime director Jacques Deray delivers the sequel to BORSALINO. Jean Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon starred in the original as partners in crime. Following the death of Belmondo's character at the hands of rival gangsters, Roch (Delon) returns here to extract revenge. Set in the south of France in the 1930s, the film follows its charismatic hero as he protects his underground empire against the Italian mob, all the while wreaking vengeance in particularly gruesome and innovative ways on those responsible for his partner's death. With a meticulously-assembled period set, beautiful photography of the picturesque landscape, and the director's deft touch with the material, this is an adept noir thriller that features France's swoon-inducing equivalent of James Dean. The amazing music done by Claude Bolling.

THE PROFFESSIONAL

LE PROFESSIONNEL
(THE PROFESSIONAL)

France 1981

Directed by Georges Lautner

Jean Paul Belmondo
Michel Beaune
Cyrielle Claire
Jean Desailly

Jean Paul Belmondo (Godard's Breathless) brings his smoldering intensity to French super-spy Joss Baumont, a top agent sent on a mission to assassinate a foreign dictator. But when the political winds change, and Baumont is double-crossed by his own government, revenge becomes the name of the game. Prison can't hold him and no one can stand in his way as Baumont lays down the gauntlet - he will carry out his assignment and someone must die! Director Georges Lautner delivers a taut, thrilling espionage drama with a sensational score from Ennio Morricone.

BORSALINO

BORSALINO

Adel/Paramount 1970

Directed by Jacques Deray

Produced by Alain Delon

Music by Claude Bolling

Alain Delon

Jean-Paul Belmondo

Michel Bouquet

Catherine Rouvel

Corinne Marchand

Paramount put a reported $2 million into this $3 million pic, produced by one of the stars (Alain Delon) via his own company, Adel. Based on the real gangster milieu of Marseille in the 1930s, pic laces together French lowlife aspects with a more probing look at organized crime in the Hollywood manner via the rise and fall of two young hoodlums. Problem is that pic [from Eugene Saccomano's novel Bandits at Marseilles] is more a vehicle for its stars' personalities than a more cogent insight into French pre-war organized gangsters.

Delon is a secretive, ambitious and cruel type, while Jean-Paul Belmondo is an easygoing, engaging hoodlum who is content with small jobs. They meet when Delon gets out of jail and finds his girl, a prostie, has taken up with somebody else. They join forces, the girl becomes a part of the scheme, and then begins the climb instigated by Delon.

Delon has sharp grace and poise as the handsome, more cultured, facet of the duo, while Belmondo displays his usual ease, good nature but physical deadliness with aplomb.

Others all acquit themselves well, with Corinne Marchand stately as a lawyer's wife, Michel Bouquet ironic and menacing as the lawyer with connections, and Daniel Ivernel excellent as a police inspector who only interferes when the gangsters tread on political toes.

Title refers to the big brimmed felt hats sported by the gangsters of the period manufactured by a reputable Italo firm.