Armée des ombres, L' (1969)

Réalisateur:

Jean-Pierre Melville

Writers:

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

Release Date:

12 septembre 1969 (France)

Genre:

Drame | War

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Very Little Dialogue | Oboe | 1940s | Flashlight | Arrest

Awards:

3 wins

Avis des utilisateurs:

far from fake romanticism

Ensemble

Lino Ventura	...	Philippe Gerbier
Paul Meurisse	...	Luc Jardie
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Jean François Jardie
Simone Signoret	...	Mathilde
Claude Mann	...	Claude Le Masque
Paul Crauchet	...	Felix
Christian Barbier	...	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

Autre(s) titre(s) :

Armata degli eroi, L' (Italy)
Army in the Shadows
Army of Shadows (USA)
The Shadow Army

Durée:

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

Pays:

France | Italy

Langue:

Français | Allemand | Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Son:

Dolby Digital (2006 restoration) | Mono

Classification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:AA (original rating) | UK:AA (1978) | UK:12A (re-rating) (2005)

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Avenue Hoche, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Les Films Corona

Anecdotes:

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.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the London WWII sequence, we see double yellow lines on the road. These were only introduced in the UK in 1956 and didn't become common until the 1960s. Same goes for a couple of the street signs, of a style not known before the 1960s.

Guillemet:

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

Connexions De Film:

Featured in Broken English (2007)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter)

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.