Exciting chronicle about freedom fighters with extraordinary plethora of famous French actors , being set during WWII when occupied France was divided in two zones : Nazi and Vichy region under command of General Petain . The film concerns about the resistance people , their remarkable acts of courage , fights , treason and many other things . French Resistance groups confront to regain their country from the Nazis , who rule tyrannically the nation and detailing the years before the liberation . It is starred by Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) , a civil engineer, is one of the French Resistance's chiefs , he is interned in a concentration camp , being doublé-crossed and given away by a traitor . He manages to getaway , and joins other leaders and freedom fighters (Paul Meurisse , Jean-Pierre Cassel , Paul Crauchet ,Simone Signoret) at Marseilles , where he gets the traitor to be executed by his colleagues .
This is an interesting and thought-provoking account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France , 1942, during the occupation . This bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Is Paris burning ?¨ the latter is a spectacular pseudo-documentary style developing the liberation of Paris with the Resistance factions and tryings to burn the city by Nazy hierarchy ; however , ¨Army of shadows¨ results to be a non-spectacular movie and has a slow-moving developing . 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 , as he ended up casting dancers to correctly provide the march steps he wanted from the soldiers . The short details-roles about freedom fighters leaders only for a minutes are based on the stories of real-life people . It shows us slowly but deeply the everyday of the French Resistants , their fears , their betrays , their solitude , their turbulent relationships , attacks against Nazis , the detentions , killings , the forwarding of hard orders and their carrying out . It's a nice production French with a plethora of international French actors, all of them give over-the-top performances such as Lino Ventura , Paul Meurisse , Jean-Pierre Cassel , Simone Signoret and Serge Reggniani . However , during the shooting of this film , Lino Ventura and the director Jean-Pierre Melville did not speak to each other , as they only communicated through assistants . The motion picture displays a brooding script by writers who lived those days , they give you a much better perspective about role each Resistance . Both writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer and director Jean-Pierre Melville belonged to this "Army in the Shadows". Evocative as well as atmospheric photography by cinematographer Pierre Lhomme ; however , the print of the film had turned completely pink with age and later on , he supervised the digital restoration .
The picture was well directed by Jean Pierre Melville, being rigorously and austerely shot in a memorable work and following his particular style . Later beginnings as a post-war forerunner of the 'Nouvelle vague' left his style in several different ways as a purveyor of a certain kind of noir movie, creating his own company and a tiny studio . Although retaining its essential French touch and developing a style closer to the world of the American film noir of the 1940s than any of their other such forays . Studio-character about personages damned to inevitable tragedies, powerful finale, stylized set pieces heightens the suspense and tension have place in all Melville's film-making . His movies and singular talent are very copied and much-admired by contemporary directors, specially the 'Polar' or noir French cinema, such as, 'Le samurai', 'Second breath', 'The red circle', 'Dirty money' and 'Army of the shadows' resulted to be one of the best films . Rating : Better than average . Wortwhile watching .
This is an interesting and thought-provoking account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France , 1942, during the occupation . This bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Is Paris burning ?¨ the latter is a spectacular pseudo-documentary style developing the liberation of Paris with the Resistance factions and tryings to burn the city by Nazy hierarchy ; however , ¨Army of shadows¨ results to be a non-spectacular movie and has a slow-moving developing . 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 , as he ended up casting dancers to correctly provide the march steps he wanted from the soldiers . The short details-roles about freedom fighters leaders only for a minutes are based on the stories of real-life people . It shows us slowly but deeply the everyday of the French Resistants , their fears , their betrays , their solitude , their turbulent relationships , attacks against Nazis , the detentions , killings , the forwarding of hard orders and their carrying out . It's a nice production French with a plethora of international French actors, all of them give over-the-top performances such as Lino Ventura , Paul Meurisse , Jean-Pierre Cassel , Simone Signoret and Serge Reggniani . However , during the shooting of this film , Lino Ventura and the director Jean-Pierre Melville did not speak to each other , as they only communicated through assistants . The motion picture displays a brooding script by writers who lived those days , they give you a much better perspective about role each Resistance . Both writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer and director Jean-Pierre Melville belonged to this "Army in the Shadows". Evocative as well as atmospheric photography by cinematographer Pierre Lhomme ; however , the print of the film had turned completely pink with age and later on , he supervised the digital restoration .
The picture was well directed by Jean Pierre Melville, being rigorously and austerely shot in a memorable work and following his particular style . Later beginnings as a post-war forerunner of the 'Nouvelle vague' left his style in several different ways as a purveyor of a certain kind of noir movie, creating his own company and a tiny studio . Although retaining its essential French touch and developing a style closer to the world of the American film noir of the 1940s than any of their other such forays . Studio-character about personages damned to inevitable tragedies, powerful finale, stylized set pieces heightens the suspense and tension have place in all Melville's film-making . His movies and singular talent are very copied and much-admired by contemporary directors, specially the 'Polar' or noir French cinema, such as, 'Le samurai', 'Second breath', 'The red circle', 'Dirty money' and 'Army of the shadows' resulted to be one of the best films . Rating : Better than average . Wortwhile watching .