ARMY OF SHADOWS
| 1970 (re-released in 2024) – 145′ – DRAMA, FILMS & LITERATURE, CLASSIC, WAR, PERIOD & HISTORY.
Written by: Jean-Pierre Melville.
Based on the Book by: Joseph Kessel.
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Melville.
Starring: Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, Paul Crauchet, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul Meurisse, Alain Dekok, Albert Michel, Denis Sadier, Claude Mann, Serge Reggiani, Nathalie Delon.
Official Selection Cannes International Film Festival 2024 (Cannes Classic).
In French with English subtitles.
A The Criterion Collection release. |
The most personal film by the underworld poet Jean-Pierre Melville, who had participated in the French Resistance himself, this tragic masterpiece, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel, recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the Resistance. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret star as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler’s regime. Long underappreciated in France and unseen in the United States, the atmospheric and gripping thriller Army of Shadows is now widely recognized as the summit of Melville’s career, channeling the exquisite minimalism of his gangster films to create an unsparing tale of defiance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.