Rating: 
Summary: BUDDHIST NOIR?
Review: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever their diverging paths, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." I have no idea what the Buddha quote in the film's title sequence really means, but Jean-Pierre Melville's LE CERCLE ROUGE (Criterion) is a superb, cool, meticulous, existential (Buddhist?) masterpiece of crime cinema about a tight-lipped thief (Alain Delon) and an escaped prisoner (Gian Maria Volonte) who fatefully cross paths (predestination?) and join a fallen ex-cop (Yves Montand) to pull off a dangerous jewel heist. All the time relentlessly pursued by an driven police inspector (André Bourvil). Thus great looking director's cut restores 40 minutes and features tons of extras.
Rating: 
Summary: remember the force Luke
Review: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever their diverging paths, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." Its just a title relax/
Rating:
Summary: BUDDHIST NOIR?
Review: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever their diverging paths, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." I have no idea what the Buddha quote in the film's title sequence really means, but Jean-Pierre Melville's LE CERCLE ROUGE (Criterion) is a superb, cool, meticulous, existential (Buddhist?) masterpiece of crime cinema about a tight-lipped thief (Alain Delon) and an escaped prisoner (Gian Maria Volonte) who fatefully cross paths (predestination?) and join a fallen ex-cop (Yves Montand) to pull off a dangerous jewel heist. All the time relentlessly pursued by an driven police inspector (André Bourvil). Thus great looking director's cut restores 40 minutes and features tons of extras.
Rating:
Summary: remember the force Luke
Review: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever their diverging paths, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." Its just a title relax/
Rating:
Summary: Suave!
Review: Can you find anything bad to say about Melville's 'Le Cercle Rouge'? I can't - this is such a well-crafted movie. Each shot is nice to look at - a cinematographor's wet-dream, in fact. This is cool film noir - great to look at, nice music, a cast of some of France's finest, a cool understated script, one of the best of the genre. This is refreshing to see - so unlike some of the action movies of today (which were influenced by it) that miss the point of things - only a few modern films from Jarmusch, Lynch, and Janet have anything close to this cool, action style. Notice the lighting in this one too - it is marvelously placed and brilliant - a pleasure to watch this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Melville is the king of cool
Review: Every review of Le Cercle Rouge uses the word cool because Melville's movies epitomize cool. This is a world of policeman and thieves, all dressed to the nines, all possessing three facial expressions: cool, resolute, and...make that two expressions. The way they light cigarettes has undoubtedly caused lung cancer in thousands of schoolboys aspiring to cool. Melville's movies play like Hemingway's prose reads. The version I saw is a newly restored, uncut version of Le Cercle Rouge from Rialto Pictures, sponsored by Melville fan John Woo, and it's touring select cities in the United States in 2003. It is far superior to the edited, dubbed version which has been the only version available in the States until now. Let's hope this uncut version makes it to DVD soon to reach a wider audience. A criminal named Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte before his spaghetti western heyday) is being escorted by a policeman named Mattei(Andre Bouvril). Vogel escapes during a train ride. Meanwhile, a thief named Corey (French movie idol Alain Delon, as impeccably groomed as ever) who spent five years in prison and never ratted on his boss is finally released. A corrupt cop fills him in on a potential heist. Corey wishes to resist, but cannot. He cannot change his nature, or his code. Vogel and Corey cross paths, as foretold by the made-up Buddhist quote that opens the movie which says that certain men are destined to meet in the red circle. They team up for the heist while the policeman stalks them. Many words are used to describe Melville movies, and all are accurate to some degree. Film noir: no doubt Le Cercle Rouge has the tragic inevitability and stern view of human nature characteristic of film noir. Existentialist: Melville's heroes make their own choices and accept responsibility for their natures. The definitions of cool and existentialist have blurred in our society. Spare, austere: the soundtrack is minimal to non-existent. Economical--Melville's movies contain the most efficient gestures and dialogue in any movie not a silent film. Most of the acting is understated, the communication nonverbal. "All men are evil," says a government official to Mattei at one point. Later, when events have born out his opinion, he reiterates to Mattei, simply, "All men." He doesn't finish his sentence. He doesn't need to. The cast "underacts" perfectly to match Melville's style. To watch Le Cercle Rouge is to journey to the center of a long line of cinematic geneology. Melville loved American film noir and gangster pics and wanted to direct Rififi. Le Cercle Rouge features trenchcoated descendants of Humphrey Bogart and a long, near-silent heist which is itself a parent of countless movie heists since. Alain Delon's characters in Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge are the predecessors to so many movie heroes: De Niro's character from Heat, Chow Yun Fat in The Killer, Takeshi Kitano in Fireworks, Bruce Willis from Pulp Fiction, Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog, even Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. Melville is a director's director. One day, you and Le Cercle Rouge will inevitably be drawn together in a theater with red chairs. All men.
Rating:
Summary: So perfect in so many ways
Review: I don't know where to even start. It's the little things that really make this movie - the fedoras, the appeal of an American car to the lead character (French criminals really did like American cars in this era), the gritty shots, the utter futility of their actions, etc, etc.
I have it on DVD, and despite my daughter's protests, watch it again whenever I want to feel good about cinema in general.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Cinematic Bliss!!!
Review: I saw this film last weekend as part of a local french film festival. I had heard great things of it and given my pention for noir I knew I would like it. However, sitting here a week later I'm just now realising how much I loved it. What can you say about film when it penetrates your dreams both of day and nocturnal. What superlatives can be used to describe a film that gets you even while doing the most mundane things like getting bagels at the local supermarket for Sunday brunch. I say, "It is pure cinematic bliss!!!" Albeit I'm an unabashed francophile and I was raised on great noir and mystery flix (in elementary school my favourite filmmaker was Hitchcock). But I digress... The point is SEE THIS FILM... NOW!!!, Rent it or Buy it but nonetheless SEE THIS FILM NOW!!! Stop what you are doing and see one of the best films you will ever see. Melville is ART... ART is Melville
Rating: 
Summary: A dreadful, empty film void of plot and suspense...
Review: If the viewer spent two hours doing nearly anything else, it would be a more profitable use of time than watching this empty, boring, tedious tale.
Without removing an ounce of excitement, let me summarize the story:
Two crooks, strangers to each other, are in the custody of the authorities and escape. Fate throws them together. They plan and execute a jewel heist. They get shot and killed. The End.
This brief synopsis captures all the thrill, suspense, romance, and mystery of the actual film. A dreadful piece of work in every respect.
The only redeeming feature is that the English subtitles are pretty easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Apotheosis of the great French existential crime pictures
Review: Jean-Pierre Melville, in many ways, shares some of the brooding
and fatalistic tendencies of his colleagues Marcel Carne (Jour Se
Leve, 1939) and Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfevres, 1947).
Yet Melville's ethos is one which, unlike theirs, often delineates character almost entirely through action and gesture.
This makes for compelling viewing, particularly in the case of Melville's late, exquisitely crafted thrillers "Le Samourai" (1967), "Un Flic" (1971), and of course "Le Cercle Rouge" (1970).
A picture of this quality deserves the success it had in limited theatrical runs during the Stateside reissue this past Spring;
Criterion has done a marvellous job with it. I can only encourage anyone with a taste for the sheer visceral pull of
a great film to spend two evenings with the disc: one with
the picture itself, and another to view the special features
on the second disc, many of which are documentary materials that
give a wonderful glimpse of the modest, self-effacing director's
M.O. Another winner from Criterion, which I would give ten stars if I could. Let's hope for "Le Samourai" next!
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