Army of Shadows

In between gritty crime dramas (Le Samourai, Red Circle), Jean-Pierre Melville delivers Army of Shadows (1969). This unsparingly grim film demolishes Hollywood's romantic view of the French Resistance. If anything, it's too downbeat for its own good.

Mild-mannered engineer Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) organizes a Resistance cell. After escaping German custody in 1942, his network engages in various activities against the Vichy puppet regime. They ferret out informers, rescue Allied POWs and smuggle supplies from London. Things go awry when Gerbier's aide Lepercq (Paul Crachet) is arrested and tortured by the Gestapo - a development leading to Gerbier's own arrest. With the help of fearless Mathilde (Simone Signoret) the Resistance rescues Gerbier. But Gerbier might not return the favor when the Nazis entrap Mathilde into becoming an informant.

Melville works off a Joseph Kessel novel but his own Resistance experience undoubtedly shapes Army of Shadows. The protagonists are never less than heroic, but their actions seem almost pointless in the grand scheme of war. Every Resistance success is met by a setback, be it a violent reprisal or a chance arrest, and their British sponsors barely trust them. Even Gerbier's visit to London is marred by an air raid and a near-disastrous return. The Germans and their Vichy allies have debased France, their violence forcing Gerbier's cell into squalid acts of reprisal. Melville's lack of sensationalism is Army's strong point.

Besides a striking black-and-blue palette, all brooding shadows and dark corridors, Melville visually emphasizes the war's dehumanization. He opens with SS troops parading past the Arc de Triomphe, a tone-setting juxtaposition. Melville repeats key images - prisoners bound in a chair, the framed slats of buses, basements and prison cells - that show France's violation, physical and psychic, by German occupation.  Melville utilizes New Wave jump cuts and narration to great effect: witness the tense scene where Gerbier gets a shave from a Petainist barber, or Gerbier's refusing to flee Gestapo machine guns.

Army of Shadows is so bleak it's often hard to watch. One admires Melville for avoiding escapist thrills, yet there's little room to breathe amidst the oppressive atmosphere. Our heroes' only reward comes when Charles De Gaulle decorates a Resistance leader (which angered French critics, coming a year after the May '68 uprisings). In this context, the downer ending proves a foregone conclusion. Melville's episodic plot forces Army to work moment-by-moment, not always to its benefit. Fortunately, Meville's cast provides an engaging human element.

Lino Ventura scores with a quiet turn. He's outwardly stiff and no-nonsense, his inner conflict betrayed only by snatches of narration. Simone Signoret gets a standout role as a seemingly ordinary yet endlessly resourceful Frenchwoman. Christian Barbier plays Le Bison, a glowering Legionnaire who proves unexpectedly sensitive. Paul Meurrise and Jean-Pierre Cassel play unsentimental Resistance chiefs.

Army of Shadows isn't a film for those seeking conventional excitement. For those who like their war movies dark and downscale, it's a perfect match.