Product Details

• Actors: Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonte, Yves Montand, Paul Crauchet
• Directors: Jean-Pierre Melville
• Format: NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: April 12, 2011
• Run Time: 140 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B004JOBATI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,797 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Le Cercle Rouge (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Alain Delon (The Leopard, Le samouraï) plays a master thief, fresh out of prison, who crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic ex-cop (The Wages of Fear’s Yves Montand). The unlikely trio plot a heist, against impossible odds, and then a relentless inspector and their own pasts seal their fates. Le cercle rouge, from Jean-Pierre Melville (Le samouraï, Army of Shadows), combines honorable antiheroes, coolly atmospheric cinematography, and breathtaking set pieces to create a masterpiece of crime cinema.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melville is the king of cool, June 23, 2003

By 

Eugene Wei "eugene" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Every review of Le Cercle Rouge uses the word cool because Melville's movies epitomize cool. This is a world of policeman and thieves, all dressed to the nines, all possessing three facial expressions: cool, resolute, and...make that two expressions. The way they light cigarettes has undoubtedly caused lung cancer in thousands of schoolboys aspiring to cool. Melville's movies play like Hemingway's prose reads.

The version I saw is a newly restored, uncut version of Le Cercle Rouge from Rialto Pictures, sponsored by Melville fan John Woo, and it's touring select cities in the United States in 2003. It is far superior to the edited, dubbed version which has been the only version available in the States until now. Let's hope this uncut version makes it to DVD soon to reach a wider audience.

A criminal named Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte before his spaghetti western heyday) is being escorted by a policeman named Mattei(Andre Bouvril). Vogel escapes during a train ride. Meanwhile, a thief named Corey (French movie idol Alain Delon, as impeccably groomed as ever) who spent five years in prison and never ratted on his boss is finally released. A corrupt cop fills him in on a potential heist. Corey wishes to resist, but cannot. He cannot change his nature, or his code. Vogel and Corey cross paths, as foretold by the made-up Buddhist quote that opens the movie which says that certain men are destined to meet in the red circle. They team up for the heist while the policeman stalks them.

Many words are used to describe Melville movies, and all are accurate to some degree. Film noir: no doubt Le Cercle Rouge has the tragic inevitability and stern view of human nature characteristic of film noir. Existentialist: Melville's heroes make their own choices and accept responsibility for their natures. The definitions of cool and existentialist have blurred in our society. Spare, austere: the soundtrack is minimal to non-existent. Economical--Melville's movies contain the most efficient gestures and dialogue in any movie not a silent film. Most of the acting is understated, the communication nonverbal. "All men are evil," says a government official to Mattei at one point. Later, when events have born out his opinion, he reiterates to Mattei, simply, "All men." He doesn't finish his sentence. He doesn't need to. The cast "underacts" perfectly to match Melville's style.

To watch Le Cercle Rouge is to journey to the center of a long line of cinematic geneology. Melville loved American film noir and gangster pics and wanted to direct Rififi. Le Cercle Rouge features trenchcoated descendants of Humphrey Bogart and a long, near-silent heist which is itself a parent of countless movie heists since. Alain Delon's characters in Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge are the predecessors to so many movie heroes: De Niro's character from Heat, Chow Yun Fat in The Killer, Takeshi Kitano in Fireworks, Bruce Willis from Pulp Fiction, Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog, even Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. Melville is a director's director.

One day, you and Le Cercle Rouge will inevitably be drawn together in a theater with red chairs. All men.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stylish, Jazzy, and Austere: Melville's Last Classic., November 30, 2003

By 

"barocco44" (Fresh Meadows, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Le Cercle Rouge (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

The premise is simple: a man named Corey (Alain Delon) is released from prison but is unable to avoid his randez-vous with destiny. True, this had been tried before Melville made The Red Circle. However, great photography should grab you within minutes: cool, dissolved hues framed by a skilled illusionist. The scene in the muddy field registers as one of the best of noir cinema: Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte), an upredictable and fearless fugitive meets the stark, taciturn Corey. Only indispensable dialogue here, a gesture with a toss of pack of cigarettes and the sublime theme composed by Eric De Marsan - the circle is now half-drawn and this movie genre has never since been the same. We never quite see a fork in the road for any of these guys: Corey, Vogel or Jansen, a cop-turned-gangster played by Yves Montand. All three, in spite of their efficiency, move closer and closer to an inevitably tragic end. Thus sets a feeling of temporariness. Whether it's a few thousand franks, a life of a goon in pursuit, or a near-encounter with a lost beautiful woman - it is an imprint as lasting as a puff of smoke from a Galoise. Andre Bourvil created a most convincing portrait of a veteran policeman, whose final coming to the table is as assured as that of Bergmanesque Grim Reaper. Watch the game unfold, while also enjoing the incredible piano arpeggios, brass sections, and a bunch of fantastic supporting-role actors.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Apotheosis of the great French existential crime pictures, November 12, 2003

By 

Nicholas Edwards (Belchertown, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Le Cercle Rouge (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

Jean-Pierre Melville, in many ways, shares some of the brooding
and fatalistic tendencies of his colleagues Marcel Carne (Jour Se
Leve, 1939) and Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfevres, 1947).
Yet Melville's ethos is one which, unlike theirs, often delineates character almost entirely through action and gesture.
This makes for compelling viewing, particularly in the case of Melville's late, exquisitely crafted thrillers "Le Samourai" (1967), "Un Flic" (1971), and of course "Le Cercle Rouge" (1970).
A picture of this quality deserves the success it had in limited theatrical runs during the Stateside reissue this past Spring;
Criterion has done a marvellous job with it. I can only encourage anyone with a taste for the sheer visceral pull of
a great film to spend two evenings with the disc: one with
the picture itself, and another to view the special features
on the second disc, many of which are documentary materials that
give a wonderful glimpse of the modest, self-effacing director's
M.O. Another winner from Criterion, which I would give ten stars if I could. Let's hope for "Le Samourai" next!