LSC Event Descriptions

April 16, 2004

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not rated
140 minutes

LSC Classics Presents:
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
April 16, 2004 at 7:30 and 10:30pm in 10-250.

This film is FREE for all visiting prefrosh!

Jean-Pierre Melville, father of the French New Wave, inspiration for Godard and Truffaut, and later Jarmusch, Tarantino and John Woo, was in top form in 1970 with Le Cercle Rouge: a cool, elegant masterpiece of film noir featuring taciturn, professional criminals with codes of honor harking back to the days of the samurai. Steeped in an atmosphere of doom, the doleful protagonists seem all too well aware that the machinery of fate is working against them. Just out of prison after a five-year stint, Corey gets a hot tip on a big job: a jewelry heist at Place Vendome. Meanwhile, Vogel, a dangerous criminal being escorted on the night train to Paris by Captain Mattei, escapes. Mattei launches a manhunt, but Vogel hides in the trunk of Coreys car. Driving north, Corey is ambushed by two thugs but saved at the last moment by Vogel. The two decide to execute the heist together and hire Jansen, an alcoholic ex-police officer, to help them out. With enemies in both the police force and the mob, the prospect of success looks slim. They're compelled to try: their métier is their life. Deliberately-paced, with every action, every gesture given its full weight, the film generates suspense through the very inevitability of its involuted plot.

(Description from the FACSEA website)

In French with English subtitles.

This program was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture.

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