The Cinematheque

“Rarely has a film shown so truly that place in the heart where hope lives with fatalism. It is not a film about daring raids and exploding trains, but about cold, hungry, desperate men and women who move invisibly through the Nazi occupation of France.”

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Jean-Pierre Grumbach became ​“Melville” to his comrades as a member of the French Resistance. It took nearly thirty years for the director to translate his experiences into a film. Army of Shadows, the most personal picture of his career, is an episodic epic of tragic, conflicted responsibility—whether to save others, survive, or perhaps to simply stick to a code. Lino Ventura (Elevator to the Gallows) is Philippe Gerbier, the no-nonsense lead. Melville tracks his journey from internment camp to the open, wintry air of occupied France with characteristic aplomb and narrative deception: the strategic plans in this film aren’t signposted; rather, they come to light in the moment of action. Gerbier joins up with such characters as ​“Le masque,” ​“Le bison,” and first-rate organizer Mathilde (Simone Signoret), though his most significant collaborator is Luc Jardie, whom the director modelled after Jean Cavaillès, the Resistance fighter and philosopher of mathematics—two equally important métiers to Melville.

In French with English subtitles

“The film boasts a startling visual quality … Of the themes with which the director deals so superbly—disguised emotion, organization, trust, quiet courage, betrayal and grief—the most important is that of loyalty (and its price).”

Wally Hammond, Time Out