Robert Guediguian has never been afraid to go to the mat with older and respected talents. Despite the odd foray by the likes of Renoir (Toni) and Marcel Tourneur (Justin de Marseille) the Marseille area is widely acknowledged as being under the ownership of Marcel Pagnol but this didn't prevent Guediguian turning out a series of consistently high-quality movies based in and around Marseille - Marius et Jeanette, Le Ville est tranquille, Marie-Jo And Her Two Loves, etc and now he horns in on Claude Berri (Lucie Aubrac) and Jean-Pierre Melville (L'Armee des ombres) territory with a film about the Resistance - he even manages to plug L'Armee des Ombres as if to tempt fate. It's nice to see Lola Namark and Ariane Ascaride in the same movie once again (albeit they never share a scene) but then it's Great to see Ascaride in anything. Simon Abkarian is the nearest thing to a leading man and Virginie Ledoyen as his wife revisits territory she staked out in Bon Voyage. Altogether it's a satisfying exploration of the rag-tag volunteers who comprised the non-French aspect of the Resistance and well worth a look.
Review of Army of Crime
