LE CERCLE ROUGE: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Les Film Corona, 1970) Criterion Collection

A seedy little crime drama wrapped in the enigma of a daring heist movie, the pièce de résistance of Le Cercle Rouge (1970) is undeniably its exhilarating grand theft of priceless jewels, a nail-biting, 27-minute sequence, expertly staged with no dialogue by director, Jean-Pierre Melville and his cinematographer, Henri Decaë. Melville claimed to have written this brilliant scene in 1950. But after the release of The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Rififi (1955) he believed its similarities would be misconstrued by the critics as plagiarism and thus shelved his idea until 1970. Whatever the truth in this, Melville was certainly not above ‘reusing’ concepts and bits of business from his own movie repertoire. During the heist, Yves Montands (a.k.a. Jansen) removes the precision scope from his rifle in order to hit his target, a moment of inspiration taken directly from Melville’s Le Deuxième Souffle (1966). Le Cercle Rouge’s opening credits also reference a quote attributed to Buddha, “When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle” - actually written by Melville who also penned the rest of the screenplay under his own creative auguries and design. Similarly, Melville had created the epigraph to Le Samouraï (1967) erroneously credited to the Book of Bushido.

Le Cercle Rouge brings together some of France’s finest thespians and remains a riveting thriller with one slam-bang of a gritty finish. Alas, from the outset, a tension brewed between Melville and Italian co-star, Gian Maria Volontè (a.k.a. Vogel – a part originally conceived for Jean-Paul Belmondo). Judging Melville as pretentious, Volonté, uniformly resented his director’s fastidiousness where costuming was concerned. Melville’s endless preening to ensure all of his actors had just the right look, eventually resulted in Volonté walking off the set, holding up production for two whole days before star, Alain Delon intervened on his co-star’s behalf, extending the necessary ‘olive branch’ to get the shoot back on schedule. Almost 20 years after Melville’s death, Volonté confided in writer, Rui Nogueira, that his linger animosity was largely unwarranted and had long since mellowed. Indeed, he now regarded Melville as one of the French cinema greats. André Bourvil, who played Le Commissaire Francois Mattei (in a role originally intended for Lino Ventura) died from Kahler’s Disease a month shy of Le Cercle Rouge’s premiere, his already assigned role in the forthcoming Delusions of Grandeur (1971) filled by Cercle Rouge alumni, Yves Montands (himself, a replacement in Cercle Rouge for Melville’s first choice, Paul Meurisse).

Plot-wise: in Marseille, Corey (Alain Delon) a career criminal, is paroled for good behavior. Shortly thereafter, his corrupt warden tips off Corey about a posh Parisian jeweler rife for a robbery. Corey visits Rico (André Ekyan), a former ‘associate’ who betrayed him, and with whom Corey’s ex-gal/pal (Anna Douking) now lives. Taking matters into his own hands, Corey forcefully steals some cash and a handgun from Rico’s safe. He then hightails it to a billiard hall, alas, only to be discovered by two of Rico's goons. Subduing one and murdering the other, Corey next purchases a flashy American car, concealing his handgun and another he took from the dead man, before departing immediately for Paris. On the way up, he encounters a police roadblock. As fate would have it, as yet unaware of his crimes, the police are after, Vogel (Gian Maria Volontè) another gangster on the lam, who has managed a daring escape from prison while being escorted by Commissaire Mattei (André Bourvil) from Marseille to Paris. Mattei’s manhunt for Vogel is unsuccessful. Corey pauses at a roadside grill, ground zero for the police’s roadblocks, leaving his boot unlocked as an invitation for Vogel to exploit it as his perfect hiding place from the police. Pretending not to have seen Vogel climb into the back of his car, Corey drives off, but later pulls into an abandon field to inform Vogel he knows of his whereabouts. At first, Vogel is hostile, brandishing one of Corey’s guns against him. But then, he learns Corey is of the criminal class too. The men agree upon terms and Corey proceeds to drive off with Vogel in the boot. Alas, Rico’s men run Corey off the road with the intent to avenge his previous killing, by performing a gangland execution in a nearby muddy field. Instead, Vogel springs into action and kills these would-be assassins.  

Now, Corey takes Vogel to his seedy flat in Paris where they hatch a plan for the jewelry store robbery, deducing it will require the work of an expert marksman to disable the security system and a fence to buy the stolen goods. Mattei is now on the hunt for the man who murdered Rico’s henchman, as well as continuing his search for Vogel. He decides to put pressure on Santi (François Perier) the slick owner of a swank nightclub, patronized by key figures of the Paris underworld. As Santi operates with the status of an untouchable, he refuses to comply with Mattei’s investigation. Corey recruits Jansen (Yves Montand), a disgraced ex-cop as his gunman, together with a fence (Paul Crauchet). The men hit the jewelers under the cover of night only to learn their fence is backing out of the deal, threatened by Rico who has also learned of the heist and Corey’s involvement in it from the warden. Jansen and Vogel suggest Corey make new inquiries with Santi. Now, Mattei blackmails Santi to gain access to the meeting, posing as a new fence. Unaware he is being framed Corey agrees to bring their stolen goods to Mattei’s country manor to sell. Presumably leaving Vogel at his apartment, Corey and Jansen depart for their rendezvous. However, as Corey begins to show Mattei the jewels, Vogel unexpectedly materializes and informs Corey of the trap set against them. Ordering Corey to run away with his ill-gotten gains, Vogel confronts Mattei and then steals away into the night after Corey. Alerted by gunshots in the manor’s park, the police close in, Vogel, Corey and Jansen, outnumbered and gunned down; the jewels, recovered.

Le Circle Rouge has been described as Melville’s ‘ballet of crime’. Indeed, Melville has expertly blended together several subplots into a seamless dance diabolique. Melville’s métier, begun well before the French New Wave kick-started, and, to go well beyond its precepts thereafter, sports an elegant visual flair that lends even his darkest and most ugly characters, grace notes of finesse. Embracing a love of film as a boy, Melville’s life as a director illustrates the depth of that immersion into this imaginary world of beautifully staged crimes. Melville’s glamorized impression of crime supersedes Melville’s perceptions of reality in totem. Much of what transpires between our triumvirate from this criminal class is left unsaid, either by the characters lack of communication with each other, and by Melville, who assumes their uber-slick and impassive bearing as self-explanatory to the audience. These are smooth operators beholding to no one. Best of all, Melville’s direction is as slick and stylish, easily filling in the blanks through a queer osmosis transpiring between our three n’er-do-wells, an almost telepathic exchange of ideas requiring no concrete transmission via words. So, when Corey is forced off the road by Rico’s gunsels, he intuitively perceives Vogel, a criminal he has only just met, but spared from a very sticky situation, will naturally come to his rescue. Indeed, Vogel might have walked away, stolen the car, or otherwise chosen to maintain his obscurity. And yet, he does precisely what Corey expects and we, as the audience, accept his finely wrought ambush as the practical conclusion to the events leading up to it, perhaps hinged on the basest of time-honored clichés; that among thieves, there remains an unwritten/unspoken nobility to protect their own.

The 2-hr. uncut version of Le Cercle Rouge arrives in native 4K from Criterion. This transfer offers radically different color grading from Criterion’s own previously released Blu-ray. Chiefly, it favors a greenish cast which seems more indigenous to its source but, on various forums is being contested as blatantly wrong. My greater concern here is overall image quality - and it's weak to say the least. Contrast is anemic and grain appears overly amplified. The image is also quite soft throughout while strangely retaining a gritty quality that is slightly distracting. Color grading aside, the image here is significantly darker on the whole,  obscuring fine details,  a handful of shots are softly focused and not entirely, perhaps, in keeping with Henri Decae's cinematography. Flesh tones are desaturated but lean ever so slightly towards an orange cast. Again, they look true to the source. True to film? Another discussion entirely. Comparatively, the old Blu-ray appears to have boosted contrast and lent an artificially ‘cool’ tint.  Criterion favors a 24-bit PCM mono track identical to its 2011 Blu-ray release. No worries – then, as now, the track has been expertly remastered to eradicate hiss and pop. As Criterion has not deigned to transfer any of the extras from their previously issued Blu or 2004 DVD, we get a Blu-ray version included herein, appearing to be derived from this new 4K source, but with all the supplements ported over from the old Blu-ray release, including video interviews with author, Rui Nogueira, and assistant director, Bernard Stora, plus excepts from Cinéastes de notres temps; Jean-Pierre Melville and archival footage; Pour le Cinema, Midi Magazine, Vingt-quatre Heures sur la deux and Morceaux de Bravoure, a theatrical trailer and booklet with essays by Michael Sragow and Chris Fujiwara, along with excerpts from ‘Melville on Melville’ and a reprinted interview, featuring composer, Eric Demarsan. Lost in translation, Ginette Vincendeau superb commentary, only to be found on BFI’s DVD from some years ago. Bottom line: Le Cercle Rouge is a taut and tenacious crime caper. No self-respecting cinephile should consider their collection complete without it. Is this the definitive video presentation of Melville's masterpiece? Not by a long shot. Regrets. 

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

2

EXTRAS

4.5