Army of Shadows (1969)

An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.

Director:

Jean-Pierre Melville

Writers:

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

Stars:

Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

France, 1942, under German occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is a French Resistance commandant. Denounced by a French collaborator, he is interned in a concentration camp. He manages to escape, and rejoins his network in Marseille, where he has the traitor executed. This movie reveals rigorously and austerely what life was like in the French Resistance: the solitude and fear of its members; their relationships with one another; the constant threat of arrest by the Gestapo; the Resistance command structure and the way its orders were carried out. Head writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville were both veterans of the "Shadow Army".

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Plot Keywords:

french resistance | resistance | escape | nazi occupied france | underground | 

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Taglines:

Betrayal. Loyalty. Collaboration. Resistance.

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Rialto Pictures

Country:

France Italy

Language:

French German English

Release Date:

12 September 1969 (France)

Also Known As:

Army of Shadows

Filming Locations:

Bunker de l'armée, Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole, Yvelines, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,620, 30 April 2006, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$25,450, 31 December 2015

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films Corona, Fono Roma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby Digital (2006 restoration)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the shot depicting German soldiers marching down the Champs Elysees, Jean-Pierre Melville thought that it would be impossible to get regular Frenchmen to provide the proper marching movements. He ended up casting dancers to correctly provide the march steps he wanted from the soldiers. This shot was originally the last in the film and prints were sent to theaters with it in that place. After the first showings, Melville decided the scene was better placed at the start of the film and it was physically spliced into the new position. This apparently resulted in several missing frames in the negative. These frames were restored from another source when the 2005 digital restoration was accomplished.

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Goofs

In the scene where the prisoners share cigarettes amongst each other, one of the man saves his cigarette for later and puts it behind his right ear. In the next shot of him, the cigarette isn't there, but we see him picking it from behind his ear just a few seconds later.

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Quotes

Claude Ullmann dit 'Le Masque': Still thinking about the others?
[referring to the resistance fighters, who, like him, were targets in the German shooting gallery]
Philippe Gerbier: No, I was thinking of the officer who was sure I'd run too. Like a scared rabbit...

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Connections

Featured in Broken English (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral): Fifth Movement (uncredited)
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven

User Reviews

far from fake romanticism

This is probably one of the best fiction movies ever made on the French resistance during Worl War II. Far from the usual romantic cliches showing handsome young men playing tricks with the Nazis and falling in love with sublime women, the substance of the movie is reality. It depicts a "shadow army" made of courageous men who are ready to sacrifice their lives but are aware of the huge cost they will eventually have to pay. It shows the cruel and sometimes inhuman choices they have to make in order to survive. This is a very useful movie that gives a real hint of what resistance truly was.