Le Cercle Rouge Jean-Pierre Melville The Criterion Collection, 2003   Reviewed by Pedro Blas Gonzalez	What can we learn today from French director Jean-Pierre Melville's 1971 film Le Cercle Rouge? One aspect is Melville's attention and respect for detail. His films possess a rare poetic quality that enlightens even the most bare and mundane subjects. Melville's cinematic control over conventions of space and time, set design, pacing and the interweaving of the idiosyncrasies and nuances of his characters makes him a master of the mise en scene. The precise positioning of a hat, the stationary camera allowing the actors to perform their craft, the long intervals of silence are all fine examples of Melville's meticulous mind at work. An exemplary rendition of this technique is evidenced in the train sequence at the start of the film when Mattei (Andre Bourvil) and Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) are beginning to settle into their compartment. Mattei is a policeman who is escorting Vogel from Marseille to Paris on the overnight train. Mattei handcuffs Vogel to the upper bunk bed. Vogel is then shown with his head on the pillow while simultaneously a similar shot of Corey, who we see for the first time, has the future ringleader of the jewelry heist sleeping in his prison cell. This fine juxtaposition of one man who is on his way to prison, while the other is about to be released the next morning is an early indication of knitting the "red circle theme." As Mattei opens the window shade the camera slowly zooms out of the train, first showing the entire window, then the window flanked by other windows, then the length of three train cars. As this takes place, the window where Mattei is seen is always kept in the middle of the screen. Next we see the entire train bisecting the French countryside. This shot offers a broader perspective of how significant this early encounter is for both parties. Melville's cinematic themes can be defined as timeless: loyalty, perseverance, a life of self-regulating discipline and above all, a cavalier and stoic attitude toward life. But, some cynics will cry, classical philosophical motifs in a French policier? In a Midi Magazine interview from May 27, 1970 Melville takes on this particular point when asked why his fascination with the policier. He explains: "I think the police thriller is the only modern form of tragedy possible. A protagonist doles out a sudden death or is himself killed. There's no doubt that the police thriller is a very practical vehicle for the adventure film in France." Melville then goes on to explain that because France does not have the vast open spaces found in the United States, action films there must conform to a lot "of twists and turns." However, the notion of twists and turns in a Melville film does not convey the same gratuitous and disjointed sense of physical action that some people have come to expect from this genre. Action for Melville denotes an overstatement. Like George Simenon's novels, Melville's work is framed not by the action performed by his characters, but by the interior world that defines the human condition. This is so much the case that Melville, like Hitchcock, did not enjoy the filming process because he found this to be merely the mechanical transcription of a personal vision. Of the 13 films that Melville made from 1947 to 1972, Le Cercle Rouge is without a doubt his greatest artistic and commercial success. The other Melville policier films are: Bob Le Flambeur (1956); Le Doulos (1963); Le Deuxieme soufflé (1966); Le Samourai (1967) and his final film, Un Flic (1972). Le Cercle Rouge is a tale of an "encounter" as Melville himself describes this work. The plot centers around breaking into a famous and well-protected jewelry shop on the place Verdome. In this respect alone, this work is one of the great heist films of all time along with The Asphalt Jungle, Rififi and Topkapi. A newly released felon Corey (Alain Delon) brings together a team of men to undertake this difficult job. The group includes a criminal on the lam named Vogel and an ex-policeman sharpshooter, Jansen (Yves Montand) who has been taken over by "the beast," as he refers to alcohol. While the heist scene itself remains a masterful example of filmmaking, the scrupulous and patient execution of this caper takes 25 minutes. It is, however, the preceding and subsequent scenes that give the film its balanced and intelligently sustained suspense. What makes the heist so intriguing is the roundabout manner in which the characters come together. While all three men accept the job for various private motives, their destinies become intertwined in such a way that precludes the interference of mere luck. The film begins with an epigram taken from Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha that describes how the sage "drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever their diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." Melville's task in Le Cercle Rouge is to demonstrate just precisely how this is to occur. Of course, the outcome is a painstakingly elegant and flawless clinic of how to engage in cinematic art. What one does not find in a Melville film is the dizzying and nauseating effects provided by shoulder-mounted camera work that achieves nothing short of self-mockery, gratuitous violence and vulgarity, sophomoric special effects, superfluous and pointless chatter, and the endemic lack of direction that characterizes such a great percentage of post late-1960s films. Also absent is the ideological proselytizing of "committed" directors who have sacrificed cinematic art to the whims of film as bread and circus. Instead, Melville creates suspense by allowing great lengths of time to take place between segments of dialogue and action. Here the responsibility is shifted to the viewer to tune in to the characters and their circumstances. Nothing comes cheap in Melville's films. Melville, like Tarkovsky, for instance, is a director gifted with a vision of how a story is to unfold in which the process of filming is merely the physical manifestation. The Criterion Collection 2003 DVD release of Le Cercle Rouge has enhanced this classic film, and has provided a telling reintroduction of this work. The film is presented in French and optional English subtitles. Its running time is 140 minutes and its aspect ration is 1.85:1. Also, included is a 24-page booklet that provides informative portions of interviews with Melville and the composer, Eric De Marsan. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this double-disc set features is the number and quality of interviews offered. These include a delightfully enjoyable portion of a documentary titled, Cineastes de notre temps: Jean Pierre Melville and "30 minutes of on-set interviews that feature Melville, Alain Delon, Yves Montand and Andre Bourvil." However, the most captivating and informative of the special features are the interviews with Melville, Bernard Stora, Melville's assistant director on Le Cercle Rouge, and Rui Nogueira, writer of Melville on Melville. Particularly interesting is Nogueira's citing of a conversation he had with Melville where the director tells him: "You're one of those intellectuals for whom, a filmmaker, once he's successful no longer holds any interest. So, since Le Cercle Rouge is a great success, one of the most successful films in French cinema, I'm sure your intellectual side is stronger than the rest of you. And even if you don't have the courage to tell me, you think it's less important than the other films." | October 2004   Pedro Blas Gonzalez is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Barry University in Miami, Florida. Amongst his intellectual pursuits is his interest in the relationship that exists between subjectivity, self-autonomy and philosophy.	Melville's cinematic themes can be defined as timeless: loyalty, perseverance, a life of self-regulating discipline and above all, a cavalier and stoic attitude toward life.