Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: Lino Ventura as a hero of the Resistance at Jean-Pierre Melville.
After The Silence of the Sea (1949) and Léon Morin, Prêtre (1961), Jean-Pierre Melville devotes a new film to the life of the French under the Occupation with L’Armée des Ombres, of which he will say: “I carried it within me for twenty-five years and fourteen months exactly. (…) It’s a piece of my memory, of my flesh.”
Adapted very faithfully from the eponymous novel by Joseph Kessel written in 1943, the feature film indeed refers to his own memories of resistance, to the action of Lucie Aubrac or even to real networks of resistance, through the destiny of Philippe Gerbier, engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées and leader of the Resistance in October 1942.
An essential monument of the 7th art, the film is overwhelming with its magnified staging of breathtaking chiaroscuros, with its music by Eric Demarsan, as well as with the masterful compositions of Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, but also Paul Crauchet and Christian Barbier.
Free from any romantic imagery, The Army of Shadows offers a harsh, cold and terribly realistic vision of this dark episode in our history. In particular, the director goes so far as to circumvent the ban on filming actors wearing the German uniform on the Place de l’Étoile for his opening scene.
After attracting 1.4 million French people when it was released in 1969, it is now the best-rated feature film by AlloCiné internet users among Jean-Pierre Melville’s filmography, with an average viewership of 4.3. out of 5.
Army of Shadows by Jean-Pierre Melville with Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, Paul Crauchet…
Tonight on Arte at 8:50 p.m.