2009-02-04

Le Cercle Rouge

[Amazon Link]

[3.5 stars] [IMDB Rating: 8.1] [Tomatometer: 96%]

Or "The Red Circle" to us folks. It's French noir, directed by the famous Jean-Pierre Melville. (He also directed Le Samouraï, which I watched a few years back.)

Alain Delon plays a moody criminal, just released from prison. Gian Maria Volontè plays another moody criminal escaping from a moody French cop taking him (apparently) on a train ride to prison. The two crooks meet by sheer coincidence and team up to pull off "one final heist". Joining them is a moody ex-cop played by Yves Montand. And the moody cop dedicates himself to tracking down the escapee, all leading up to a thrilling climax.

So it's not bad, even if you have to read a lot of subtitles. And it's slow-moving in that moody French way. It reminded me quite a bit of Heat, the DeNiro/Pacino movie, although without the apocalyptic gun battle.

Most Clint Eastwood fanboys will recognize the name Gian Maria Volontè: he played two different bad guys in Mr. Eastwood's first two spaghetti westerns. He's not recognizable as the same actor here unless you look really hard.

Posted 2009-02-04 6:00 PM EST
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