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Saturday, Nov 18, 2023
7 PM (140 mins)
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BAMPFA -
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2023
7 PM (140 mins)
Buy Tickets
BAMPFA
SUBJECTS
Le cercle rouge
(The Red Circle)
4K Digital Restoration
featuringThe cast is a rogues’ gallery of greats!
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
Alain Delon, Yves Montand, André Bourvil, Gian-Maria Volonté,
Alain Delon, a highline thief who lives in studied elegance when he’s not languishing in jail, plans an elaborate jewelry-store heist with two cohorts picked up almost at random: an escaped convict (Gian Maria Volonté) and an alcoholic lapsed lawman rescued from a lost weekend (a great role for Yves Montand). The popular French actor André Bourvil is superbly cast against type as the nemesis cop, Matteï, a straight guy who lives alone with cats (Jean-Pierre Melville’s). We learn his routine; he’s a male Jeanne Dielman and can twist the knife when needed. Twisting Matteï’s handle is the police commissioner, who learned his lessons well from the Gestapo: everyone’s guilty. Typical of Melville, the exciting moments in this caper are not the violent ones; the thrill is in the camerawork by Henri Decaë, with its gaze of surveillance and fraternity. Long live the guilty.
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Jean-Pierre Melville
Cinematographer
- Henri Decaë
Language
- French
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- Color
- DCP
- 140 mins
Source
- Rialto Pictures
CINEFILES
CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.
View Le cercle rouge documents
'Le cercle rouge' (press kit), Rialto Pictures, Jean-Pierre Melville, 2002
Jean-Pierre Melville: the French connection (program note), Pacific Film Archive, Judy Bloch, 1996
Red circle (review), Films and Filming, Gordon Gow, 1972
J.P. Melville tourne 'Le cercle rouge' (review), Nouveau Cinemonde, Le, 1970
Le cercle rouge (review), Variety, Gene Moskowitz, 1970
All guns and gangsters -- excerpt (article), David Austen
Jean-Pierre Melville in context (program note), Chris Peachment
Displaying 7 of 7 publicly available documents.
Event Accessibility
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