warning : contains spoilers

Army in the Shadows was adapted by Melville from the novel of the same title by Joseph Kessel - who also wrote the book on which Jean-Claude Carriere based a rather different film which starts and ends in the centre of Paris, Luis Bunuel's sublime Belle de Jour (1967). Both Melville and Kessel had first-hand experience of its subject, namely the efforts of the French Resistance against the occupying Nazis during World War II - and it shows in nearly every frame of a film which is almost relentlessly dour and bleak, the characters moving in a greyish miasma of failure and doubt as they carry out their desperate, clandestine operations in the face of overwhelming odds.

The audience knows, of course, how the wider war turned out - but as far as the individuals here are concerned, the 'ending' is decidedly unhappy (it's not a million miles away from the structural ingenuity deployed by William Goldman on All The President's Men.) Closing on-screen titles baldly relate the uniformly grim fates suffered by the protagonists, including that of Gerbier (Lino Ventura), the taciturn civil-engineer whose progress from prison-camp-inmate to maquis bigwig we've followed over the course of the film.

Gerbier - brilliantly played by Ventura as an impassively charismatic slab of anti-matter - is described at one early stage as 'ironic and aloof,' and it's this mode which is adopted by Melville himself as he delivers an elliptical series of scenes (emphasising moments of hesitation and reflection as much as action,) gradually linking these up into what turns into a slow-burning plot. The film's structure is methodical and mathematical, building to the drive-by execution of a major character - a killing whose painful moral complexities tax characters and viewer alike, and which we realise everything we've seen beforehand has been guiding us toward.

There's plenty of time to ponder such ambiguities and nuances, as Army in the Shadows is (as befits its subject-matter) often decidedly heavy going - with numerous shots and scenes extended to the point of torpor. The pace often bogs down during the middle sections, but picks up smartly as the climactic act of violence inexorably approaches. And it's only after the titles have rolled that the picture's full, cumulative impact really hits, and the full scale of Melville and Kessel's vision can be appreciated as an impressively intelligent and mature whole.

Neil Young
27th September, 2006

ARMY IN THE SHADOWS : [8/10] : L'armee des ombres aka Army of Shadows : France (Fr/Ity) 1969 : Jean-Pierre MELVILLE :  145 mins (BBFC timing of restored version; original running-time 143 mins)
seen at The Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 17th September 2006 - public show (paid £5.20)