Once I got to the end of my first viewing of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows I realized a close analogy was to compare it to a weather forecast for a thunderstorm. If you do any research into why Criterion would release this film on Blu-ray after their 2007 DVD edition hit shelves following a complete restoration of the 1969 classic you’ll find reviewers shouting from the rooftops about the film’s quality. Essentially, even though this film begins as something of a mild rainstorm with hints of thunder on the horizon by the time it’s over you are in for one hell of a thunder and lightning show.
Dark clouds loom as Army of Shadows opens with marching German troops in front of the Arc de Triomphe in a scene Melville continued to move back-and-forth from the beginning of the film, to the end and ultimately back to the beginning. The scene freezes and fades to black and the story begins as if those couple of minutes hadn’t already told enough. Consequently, as an American viewer, while I knew what I was looking at I didn’t fully grasp its meaning not having the slightest clue what Army of Shadows was about. I knew soon enough.
As the opening credits role, it’s October 1942 and the rain is falling and Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura), a member of the French Resistance, is being transported to a concentration camp. Shortly thereafter he escapes and not too long after that he oversees the execution of the traitor that named him — strangled to death before our very eyes as a lone tear falls down his cheek. It’s immediately evident Army of Shadows is the cold brutal truth of Resistance fighters battling against Hitler’s regime and the consequences resulting from their decisions.
Melville’s approach is to embrace this unhappy time in history, opening the film with a quote from Georges Courteline saying, “Unhappy memories! Yet I welcome you… You are my long lost youth…” This theme echoes not only throughout the movie, but throughout the features, most notably a five-minute feature with co-star Simone Signoret as she recalls memories of those she knew that were involved in the Resistance.
Accurately portraying people she knew to be real, one of them being her makeup artist Maud Begon, was important to Signoret. These people were heroes and these were their lives and memories, and if she was to “welcome” them as Melville suggests she wanted to get it right. From my perspective she got it right, as did Melville with a film that starts off with only the pattering of rain drops but ends in an all out downpour of thunder and lightning made up of such intense ambiguity you can’t help but appreciate the questions you’ll be left with.
Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation is superb, much of the credit, though, belongs to the 2006 restoration supervised by the film’s cinematographer Pierre Lhomme as evidenced in a short feature showing just a few examples of the scratch repair, restoration of lost frames and color correction that went into returning this film to perfection. It was interesting to hear Lhomme discuss the film on the included features — some new, some archived — as he talks about the cool tones Melville desired. Discussing how Melville despised yellow and orange hues, the cold blue palette the film employs throughout actually made such tones pop off the screen even more as the yellow glow of street lamps in the darkness look absolutely stunning.
The audio comes in two separate tracks, one a French monaural track and a French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, the second of which is a standout success.
As far as supplemental features go, all have been ported over from the 2007 DVD release beginning with an audio commentary with film historian Ginette Vincendeau as she discusses virtually all aspects of the film and she certainly has the time to do it considering the 145-minute run time. The commentary is very matter of fact and professorial so you may want to make sure you’re prepared for more of a film lesson than a casual commentary when you give it a spin.
Additional features related to the film include a short archival feature titled “Jean-Pierre Melville, Filmmaker” and “L’invite du dimanche”, a 31-minute, five-part gathering of selections from the 1969 French television program “L’invite du dimanche” that offers up behind-the-scenes looks, interviews and commentary on the film.
Another archival section labeled as “The Resistance” is more of a historical look back beigninng with a 35-minute 1945 documentary narrated by Noel Coward. The piece comes from the Imperial War Museum and gives a candid look at the end of the German occupation in Paris. I already referenced the Simone Signoret interview from this section and “Ouvrez les guillemets” is a section offering archival interviews with former members of the French Resistance.
Among the newer features created at the same time as the restoration, and some specifically for Criterion’s 2007 DVD release, you have a very good, 15-minute interview with cinematographer Pierre Lhomme, an interesting look at Melville’s legacy through the eyes of Oscar-winning editor Francoise Bonnot and then the best and most revealing of the bunch is Melville et “L’armee des ombres” which includes additional insight from Lhomme and Bonnot as well as actor Jean-Pierre Cassel, writer and filmmaker Philippe Labro, composer Eric Demarsan and director Bertrand Tavernier who worked on publicity for Melville’s Le Doulos in 1962 and served as an assistant to Melville early on in his career.
This latter feature also takes everything you’ve heard throughout the other special features and places it all in one place and runs approximately 27 minutes. Perhap most eye-opening for newcomers to Melville will be his treatment of some of the cast, most notably Lino Ventura who not only played the star of the film but the two also never said a word to each other during filming, instead the spoke through a third party. Also, Melville’s direction of Signoret for the film’s final sequence will teach you a lot about how he managed to get the performances and reactions the actors provide throughout.
Finally, a 44-page illustrated booklet with essays by critic Amy Taubin and historian Robert O. Paxton, as well as excerpts from Rui Nogueira’s Melville on Melville completes the set.
Army of Shadows is a fantastic movie, but if you’re new to Melville and on the fence as to whether you want to take a leap at a blind buy I’d recommend Le Samourai first and then probably Le Cercle Rouge. I am still very new to Melville’s work myself as this was the third film of his I’ve enjoyed after those two and felt it was a solid natural progression toward a more serious and less entertainment based feature from the iconic helmer. Le Samourai remains my favorite of the three and one I certainly hope Criterion brings to Blu-ray sooner rather than later.
