#109: Le Cercle Rouge
Part of the Top 150 Films series
It’s hard to make a taut 140-minute film with no fat, but Melville managed to do it with Le Cercle Rouge. As opposed to the previous Le Samourai, this film is no flash and all substance. Deliberately understated in its pacing, dialogue, performances (especially Gian Maria Volonte) and cinematography (by Henri Decae, which is in colour but has the muted effect of black and white), the film concerns three chance acquaintances who plan and carry out the robbery of an elegant, supposedly impregnable jewellery store. Its central heist sequence is worthy of accolades in its own right — not only for how it out-Rififi’s Rififi but also sets the stage for Mission: Impossible and other techno-thrillers of its ilk — yet its quieter, more subtle moments of characterisation leading up to the climactic event (e.g. Volonte’s escape in the forest in his tighty whities) are also worthy of intense admiration.
