Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) 1970 M

Jean-Pierre Melville brings his icy stylishness to this deconstruction of an intricate heist. Two master thieves team up with a drunkard ex-cop to pull of an elaborate robbery. Although Melville takes great pains to show the details of the crime itself (a bravura sequence that is Rififi-esque in its minutiae and absence of dialogue), it is the study of these three men and their inner psyches that makes Le Cercle Rouge one of the most powerful French crime dramas ever produced.

M | Medium level violence

35MM, COLOUR, MONO, 140 MINUTES, FRANCE/ITALY, FRENCH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE / CINEMATOGRAPHER: HENRI DECAË / EDITOR: MARIE-SOPHIE DUBUS / CAST: ALAIN DELON, BOURVIL, GIAN MARIA VOLONTÈ, YVES MONTAD / PRINT SOURCE: NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE AUSTRALIA / RIGHTS: STUDIO CANAL / SCREENING FORMAT: 35MM