Army of Shadows (1969) L'armée des ombres (original title)

Director:

Jean-Pierre Melville

Writers:

Joseph Kessel (novel)
Jean-Pierre Melville (adaptation)

Release Date:

12 September 1969 (France)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

France, 1942, during the occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is one of the French Resistance's chiefs...

Plot Keywords:

Traitor | Civil Engineer | Camp | Marseille | Resistance

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Lino Ventura	...	Philippe Gerbier
Paul Meurisse	...	Luc Jardie
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Jean François Jardie
Simone Signoret	...	Mathilde
Claude Mann	...	Claude Ullmann dit 'Le Masque'
Paul Crauchet	...	Felix Lepercq
Christian Barbier	...	Guillaume Vermersch dit 'Le Bison'
Serge Reggiani	...	The hairdresser
André Dewavrin	...	Colonel Passy
Alain Dekok	...	Legrain
Alain Mottet	...	Commander of the camp
Alain Libolt	...	Paul Dounat
Jean-Marie Robain	...	Baron de Ferte Talloire
Albert Michel	...	Gendarm
Denis Sadier	...	Gestapo's doctor
Georges Sellier	...	Colonel Jarret du Plessis
Marco Perrin	...	Octave Bonnafous
Hubert de Lapparent	...	Aubert, Pharmacien
Colin Mann	...	Dispatcher
Anthony Stuart	...	R.A.F. Major
Michel Fretault	...	Anonymous Patriot
Gérard-Antoine Huart		(as Gérard Huart)
Percival Russel
Michel Dacquin	...	Cellmate
Jeanne Pérez
Pierre Vaudier
Jacques Marbeuf	...	S.S. Interrogation Officer
Franz Sauer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marcel Bernier	...	L'adjudant douanier
Gaston Meunier	...	Controleur des bagages
Adrien Cayla-Legrand	...	Général De Gaulle (uncredited)
Nathalie Delon	...	Une amie de Jean-François (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Pierre Melville

Writing credits
Joseph Kessel		(novel)
Jean-Pierre Melville		(adaptation)

Produced by
Jacques Dorfmann	....	producer

Original Music by
Éric Demarsan		(as Eric De Marsan)

Cinematography by
Pierre Lhomme
Walter Wottitz

Film Editing by
Françoise Bonnot

Production Design by
Théobald Meurisse

Set Decoration by
Théobald Meurisse

Costume Design by
Colette Baudot		(as Madame Colette Baudot)

Makeup Department
Maud Begon	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Alain Quefféléan	....	production manager (as A. Quefféléan)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jean-François Adam	....	assistant director (as J.F. Adam)
Georges Pellegrin	....	assistant director (as G. Pellegrin)
Jean-Claude Ventura	....	assistant director (as J.C. Ventura)

Art Department
Marc Desages	....	second assistant set decorator
Henri Sonois	....	first assistant set decorator (as Enriqué Sonnois)
Roger Volper	....	property master
René Ferracci	....	poster designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Jacques Carrère	....	sound director
Jean Nény	....	sound director (as Jean Neni)
Alex Pront	....	sound director
Victor Revelli	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Walter Wottitz	....	special photographic effects

Visual Effects by
Georges Tornero	....	restoration (restored version)

Camera and Electrical Department
Philippe Brun	....	camera operator
Pierre Li	....	first assistant camera
Jacques Renard	....	second assistant camera
Raymond Voinquel	....	still photographer
Walter Wottitz	....	camera operator: aerial unit
Walter Wottitz	....	camera operator: underwater unit

Music Department
Robert Pouret	....	music editor
Bob Vatel	....	musician: piano

Other crew
Betty Elvira	....	script girl
Jean-Pierre Spiri-Mercanton	....	general manager (as J.P. Spiri-Mercanton)
Howard Vernon	....	dialogue: English

Production Companies

• Les Films Corona
• Fono Roma

Distributors

• Valoria Films (1969) (France) (theatrical)
• StudioCanal (2007) (France) (DVD) (HD DVD) (restored version)
• Kinoyhtiö (1971) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Rialto Pictures (2006) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD) (10 disc box set)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1985) (Finland) (TV) (as MTV1)
• United Film & Entertainment Marketing (????) (Finland) (video)
• Universal Pictures Finland Oy (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1989) (Finland) (TV)

Special Effects

• Eurocitel

Also Known As:

"L'armée des ombres" - France (original title)

Runtime:

Spain:140 min | UK:145 min | USA:145 min | Argentina:145 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French | German | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Dolby Digital (2006 restoration)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:AA (original rating) | UK:AA (1978) | UK:12A (re-rating) (2005) | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Avenue Hoche, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Les Films Corona

Trivia:

Cinematographer Pierre Lhomme claimed that the last surviving, watchable print of the movie had turned completely pink with age. He later supervised the 2k resolution, digital restoration of the film at the Eclair Laboratories in Paris.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the sequence when Mathilde exits the car and silently waves goodbye to Gerbier, in response he rolls his window up completely, yet in the very next shot his window remains open as the car drives away.

Quotes:

Philippe Gerbier:See you later, Comrade.
Legrain:...You're a communist?
Philippe Gerbier:No. But I can still have comrades.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Léon: The Professional (1994)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter)

A masterpiece by the book

Never before (and after) a movie on French Resistance has been so "glamourless". Jean-Pierre Melville has been hailed as the father of the French gangster film. Certainly, his gangster films are probably the films for which he is best known (Le Doulos, Deuxieme Soufflé, Le Samourai, Le cercle rouge, Bob le flambeur) on par if not better than anything which Hollywood produced. Yet the world of the anonymous gun-toting hoodlum occupies only a part of his oeuvre.

'L'armee des ombres' (aka The Shadow Army) is Jean Pierre Melville 1969 masterpiece and does not deal with gangsters. The film is a mix of the director's war time experiences in the French Resistance and Joseph Kessel successful wartime novel. What is remarkable about this film is that Melville turned a mosaic of anecdotes that Kessel's novel is all about into a great, dark epic.

From the chilling opening shot of Germans marching down the Champs-Elysées to the final scene involving the fellow Resistant Mathilde (the great Simone Signoret) the film seems to demonstrate that fighting for an ideal often leads towards death and solitude. What Melville does successfully is to show those dead-ends the way they occur to their protagonist (very simply and minimalist), however more than showing them Mr. Melville managed to make these realities (death and solitude) an equally tragic experienced for the audience...

'L'armee des ombres' is Melville's most moving film, a monument to the spirit of the Resistance rather than its actuality. A poignant drama with a strong performance from not only Lino Ventura but also Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, Jean Pierre Cassel, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet to name a few.

This is probably Melville's greatest cinematographic achievement and, when fiction becomes reality, when actors leave behind their egos to resurrect into heroes, when the colors of the film mirror the one of the soul and when silence becomes music, true cinema has been achieved… 'L'armee des ombres' is a terrible yet powerful experience in which the words duty, courage, abnegation get charged with meaning…