Main Cast: Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volontè, Yves Montand, François Perier
Release Year: 1970
Country: FR/IT
Run Time: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Corey (Alain Delon) is the young gun in the French underworld who has just been released from prison. Escaped convict Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonté) 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. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
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 Volonté, 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 pristine 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. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Paul Crauchet - The fence; Paul Amiot - Chief of Internal Affairs; Jean Champion - Guard; Pierre Collet - The prison guard; Robert Favart - Salesperson at Mauboissin's; Roger Fradet - Policeman; Jean Franval - Le tenancier d'hotel; Jean Pignol - L'employe du greffe; Yvan Chiffre - Policeman; Robert Rondo - Policeman; André Ekyan - Rico; Yves Arcanal - Examining magistrate; René Berthier - Police chief; Jean-Marc Boris - Santi's son
Credit
Théo Meurisse - Art Director, Jean-Pierre Melville - Director, Marie-Sophie Dubus - Editor, Eric De Marsan - Composer (Music Score), Henri Decaë - Cinematographer, Robert Dorfmann - Producer, Jean-Pierre Melville - Screenwriter
The film's title means "The Red Circle" and refers to the film's epigraph which translates as
"Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: 'When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle.'"
In fact, the Buddha said no such thing; Melville made it up[1] just as he did with the epigraph in Le Samouraï.
Orlando Bloom is set to play the Alain Delon character Corey in the remake to be directed by Johnnie To. The film is already in pre-production with Bloom learning different martial art techniques to be used in the film. The Red Circle is set to start filming in Hong Kong in 2009. According to IMDb, Chow Yun-Fat, Liam Neeson, and Alain Delon are tentative co-stars.[2]
Hong Kong director John Woo wrote an essay for the Criterion DVD of Le Cercle rouge arguing the film's merits.[3] When the film was given a theatrical re-release, Woo was given a "presenter" credit.
