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June 22, 2006
Army Of Shadows
The first page of the press notes for Melville's lost masterpiece reads:
"Critics, Writers and Editors, please note: Army Of Shadows has never before been released in the United States. Please do not refer to it in your publication as a revival, re-release or reissue."
I knew the film had been somewhat suppressed upon its release in 1969, but I never realized that it had never made it to these shores. That it's currently showing around the country suddenly seems not so much a special occasion as a cinematic landmark. The newly struck, completely restored 35mm prints really must be seen to be believed. It's the best thing you could see this summer.
I saw it for a second time myself yesterday and, having done so, I can now admit the rather embarrassing conditions under which I first experienced it, the week before last. It was myself, Brad, James and Tony. A scorching Saturday afternoon. We arrived at the Film Forum to find a line wrapping around the block. A line for an old French film that had already been playing for a month, on a Saturday afternoon - it was a glorious sight! On the downside, the matinee was sold out, and so we purchased tickets for the next show and went off to wile away the afternoon at the least expensive watering hole in the West Village.
Three hour later, we returned, tickets in hand and ever so slightly sloshed. The lights dimmed, the film began and here I must admit: I began to doze off. Never completely, and never for any great length of time; but the resulting experience was somewhat like turning the pages of a great novel and discovering that you don't remember a thing you've been reading. I'm not proud of this fact, but I think (hope?) every cinephile can probably admit to a similar experience.
Watching it again, then, was like playing an incredibly profound game of connect-the-dots. I remember every scene, but now I understood how they fit together. And what a picture those pieces form! I remember talking to Brad after that first (invalidated) screening, and agreeing with him that it wasn't as good as Le Samourai; but it is, in fact, quite a bit better. Of the Melville films I've seen, this is unquestionably the the best. he bitter sentimentality that seeps through his normally detached style - the result of his personal involvement in the French Resistance during his youth - is terribly affecting, and all the moreso on the big screen. This is a film to see and see again - preferably while sober and fully tuned to its quiet, overwhelming power.
Girish is hosting great discussion on what Christian Keathley calls "the cinephiliac moment." A moment, in other words, that transcends its own relative unremarkable qualities to find a fixed home in the memories of cineastes (the definition can and has been broken down further). Here's a new favorite moment of my own: there's a scene in Army Of Shadows where Gerbier (Lino Ventura) must return to France from London, via a parachute. After a cold, unrestful flight that seems to go on far too long, the co-pilot appears in the hold, tells Gerbier it's time for him to go and opens the hatch. Gerbier sits there, his feet dangling out over space, the wind rushing in his face; the co-pilot waits for just the right moment, and then tells him to jump.
And he sits there. He's given the go-ahead once more, and he pauses for a few seconds more - and in that moment, right before he takes the plunge, I found one of those points of pure connectivity that, for me, define a cinephiliac moment. I've made that same hesitation myself. I think anyone who's ever jumped out of an airplane has. There's just no way you can't.
I also saw Drawing Restraint 9 again, and want to amend a previous statement. What I love about Barney's films is not just the the attention to process, but the manner in which the process is marked by both primordial order and otherworldly consequence. There's something enormously satisfying about the levels of cause and effect in his films, and in the textures and forms that comprise them.
Also: where does he get all that vasline?
Posted by David Lowery at June 22, 2006 5:11 PM
Comments
Man, if I would have know that I would have punched you!
Posted by: jmj at June 23, 2006 10:17 AM
You weren't all that keen to the plot either, judging by some of the comments you made afterwards...
Posted by: Ghostboy at June 23, 2006 10:53 AM
i don't know..i felt fairly ok while we watched it to where i think my opinion and thoughts on the film are still valid. i definitely didn't doze off (tisk, tisk ;)
i think even if i watched it again, i'd still vote for le samourai over this, simply for the fact that i'm a whore for the crime genre. but nevertheless, this was an absolutely amazing film, and one i'm hoping to be able to view many more times over in the near future.
i know we discussed that rialto is showing this new print..have you heard any word yet on a dvd release? i've been thinking about this constantly since we watched it.. it just seems like the perfect film for a criterion release.
Posted by: brad at June 24, 2006 11:13 PM
I should have said that I was fairly sloshed. That's what I get for trading beer for whiskey. : )
I don't know about the DVD release, but I'm sure Criterion will put it out. But here's some even better news: next year, Rialto is releasing a restored version of Melville's Le Doulos, a 1962 gangster film starring the great Jean Paul Belmondo. I can't wait!
Posted by: Ghostboy at June 25, 2006 3:12 AM
I saw Army of Shadows a few days ago in San Francisco, the opening day matinee, there were only about a dozen people in the theatre, mostly senior citizens. It's late June, but the neighborhood near the ocean where the Balboa theatre was socked in by very dense fog. It was cold and dark, perfect weather for leaving the theatre and thinking about this film.
In terms of it versus Le Samourai, it's tough to say which is better. This is a better story, with deeper characters. Le Samourai is a more perfect film, in that it seems to stay inside a single universe, the photography is perfect, it feels more cohesive as a cinematic vision. Army has perhaps too much plot, we go to England, we jump out of airplanes.
There is also the question of leading men - with Alain Delon and others in the cast, Le Samourai is a sexier film. The army is staffed with more "real" looking people: older, fat, balding. Lino Ventura is great, but he is older and wiser, warmer. We get voice overs from him and sometimes the film threatens to switch POVs to other characters (who also get voice overs). In Army younger people are fodder in this real war - the incredible scene where they have to strangle the handsome young traitor.
Posted by: Wayne at June 26, 2006 12:40 PM
Thanks for the great comments, Wayne - and indeed, a thick cold fog is a much better atmosphere to emerge from the film into than the blinding summer heat that accompanied both of my viewings.
I wouldn't go so far as to say Le Samoura is more perfect - it is more cohesive, and more concise (and more enjoyable, even), but I think both films are perfect in their own ways. The way Army Of Shadows seems to drag on (without actually draggin on) is one of the great things about it. By the end, one is completely in tune to the almost hopeless exhaustion of this ragtag team of resistance fighters.
Posted by: Ghostboy at June 30, 2006 2:51 AM