Army of Shadows 1969

     The title of this film in French is L’Armee des ombres and the setting is in France of 1942.  The country is under German occupation during the WWII period.  Philippe Gerbier is a civil engineer and also a French Resistance commandant.  A French collaborator tells the Germans who he is, what he's doing and he taken to a concentration camp.  He escapes and rejoins his network in Marseille and he has the collaborator with the Germans executed.  Life was rigorous and austere during the French Resistance.  They were under constant threat of arrest by the Gestapo.

     It takes a certain kind of person to live under the intense pressure of possible discovery and death.  They must move invisibly and quietly like shadows.  They have to forget about being cold, hungry, desperate and they cannot call attention to themselves.  They use false names and they have no addresses.  They can be betrayed at any moment and they will probably die.  If they see a man or woman they have worked with arrested, they must look away and they cannot become involved.  If the Nazis are entering a place where there is someone they know working, they cannot go inside and alert them.  If they let someone escape that the Nazis are searching for, they must take a cyanide pill or they will be tortured when they are captured and then killed.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

 

145 min, Drama directed by Jean-Pierre Melville with Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Claude Mann,Paul Crauchet, Christian Barbierf, Serge Reggiani, Andre Dewaverin, Alain Dekok, Alain Mottet, Alain Libolt, Jean-Marie Robain, Albert Michel.

Note:  Imdb 8.2 out of 10, 97% critic 94% audience, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 88 reviews, Metacritic 99 out of 100 with 24 critics 8 out of 10 with 89 reviews, Slant Magazine 4* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Yvelines, Paris, Versailles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Val d’Oise, Rhone-Alpes, Hauts-de-Seine, France and London, England, UK.  Director Melville was a member of the Resistance and he lived this life.  Included on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list.  Simone Signoret was 48 during filming and she seems much younger?  There is a mistake in London with the double yellow lines on the road.  They were introduced in the UK in 1956 and didn’t become common until the 1960’s.  The submarine used is a French Navy Arethuse-class submarine.  It was launched on 12 October 1958, more than 15 years after this film was produced.  When Gerbier is taken to the concentration camp, rain is only falling in front of the camera and directly on the van.  Just a few feet away, there are no raindrops.