Le Cercle Rouge

A thirty minute final heist sequence could, perhaps, mislead you into thinking Melville’s 1970 feature sacrifices character in favour of exquisite cinematography and action. These features are indeed fixed in residence throughout, but so too, in more than equal measure, are the interminable depths of the character, which Melville unravels before us.

Celebrated as the spiritual father of the heist genre, Melville casts regular collaborator Alan Delon as his charismatic anti-hero Corey, in what is arguably their most assured and successful collaboration ever. Whether Delon plays a cop or a criminal, a lover or a fighter, he is unable to give anything other than a measured, masterly performance under Melville’s directorial eye.

Upon his release from prison Corey meets Vogel (played with a sophisticated swagger by Gian Maria Volonte), and together with Jansen (Yves Montand), a wise old criminal, they plot the perfect jewel heist. In pursuit of fugitive Vogel is experienced investigator, Commissioner Mattei (in a career best performance by André Bourvil), intent on bringing him to justice, whilst avoiding his own pursuers: internal affairs. Each man, complete with his own, individual pursuer, is chartered on a collision course with little hope of reprieve.

Not a film to be missed by lovers of gangster and crime thrillers.