Movie : Le Cercle Rouge, or: How a masterful heist surrounds itself with stale characters
Link : Le Cercle Rouge, or: How a masterful heist surrounds itself with stale characters
Le Cercle Rouge, or: How a masterful heist surrounds itself with stale characters
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) (1970)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
***SPOILERS***
Jean-Pierre Melville begins Le Cercle Rouge with a quotation from Buddha:
“Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: '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.’”
Well, it’s not a quote from Buddha himself, but it seems fitting that Melville would go ahead and make it up. For as much as Le Cercle Rouge seems another classic Melville venture in terms of style and atmosphere, the famed director was hell bent on building around an idea instead of building around the characters. And, just as the film’s opening quote suggest, he’s not ashamed to be candid about his intentions. Melville always wanted to make a “heist film,” even long before The Asphalt Jungle existed (so he said), and Le Cercle Rouge is his dream fulfilled. But the heist itself, while being vintage Melville in the most thrill-tastic ways possible, seems drastically undercut by his overall execution regarding his three thieves: Corey (Alain Delon), a thief recently released from prison; Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté) a murderer who recently escaped police custody; and Jansen (Yves Montand), an ex-policeman whose sharpshooting skills have landed him in crooked company. And with each of these men, one question begs: why are they robbing this jewelry store?
Or, more importantly: why do I care?
The first question is a bit easier to answer. Because…well, it’s their profession. All of Melville’s characters are steeped in a personal code of ethics. They live in a world of competition, instantly recognizing the players and the innocent bystanders. Philippe Gerbier of Army of Shadows walks about an internment camp separating the weak from the strong, constantly assessing his captor’s next move. It’s early established that Gerbier’s code of ethics lies within his silence—and breaking your silence with the French Resistance resulted in death. In Le Samourai, Jef Costello’s code of ethics is permeated through a lengthy opening shot that captures the very core of his existential existence that exists without any sort of spiritual transcendence: getting the job done. And do it flawlessly…which he doesn’t do, creating a path for his character amidst his tragic flaw. In Le Doulos, Maurice walks down a clammy street as the camera slowly moves forward, eventually spreading the shadow of prison bars across his body. Instantly, the theme of fatalism is perpetuated and continues to filter through these men’s professions through a utilization of their claustrophobic environment.
What can we say about Le Cercle Rouge’s opening sequence? While each of the aforementioned films established these men’s professions, their code of ethics and Melville’s planned predestination, Le Cercle Rouge wastes no time in fueling the story. Instead of giving life to Corey and Vogel, they are presented in situations that set their eventual meeting in motion. Corey discusses the eventual heist with a crooked prison guard, but at no point are the implications of such a heist revealed, nor are the motivations relayed that give Corey such an impulse to immediately jump back into the game. Vogel’s introduction is another example of Melville’s masterful attention to excruciating detail building tension. But once again, there is little fascination outside the actual escape itself. As Melville indulges in a well organized police chase that pushes Vogel closer and closer to Corey, we see that he has no intention in building these characters outside of their stone-cold professions—Melville has an outline and creates a colorful portrait, but there’s no life behind these paintings.
One could make comparisons to countless Westerns (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), which were actually products of classic Asian cinema (thus sustaining the opening Buddhist sentiment). The sense of pride in one’s profession and isolation that plagues the heroes of Seven Samurai is certainly present in Le Cercle Rouge, but merely presenting these men’s tendencies as crooks does little to define their code of ethics. Solely painting them as men of isolation does not capture their motivations. They are men of isolation because of their profession, but how intricately can that message be relayed without some underlying sense of direction or destiny? Certainly fatalism becomes these men’s destiny…but only because Melville candidly states this in the opening frame through a fake Buddha quote. Hell, you may not even recognize the fatalism if you've never seen another Melville film. The silence that runs deep and plagues the men of Army of Shadows? Costello’s sole flaw in Le Samourai? The use of lighting to indicate characters’ paths in Le Doulos? None of this is present in Le Cercle Rouge.
In fact, Melville’s most well-developed character is police commissioner Mattei (André Bourvil), whose isolation is actually put on display subtly throughout the film. His life is entrenched in grunt work, much like Melville’s life was infused with film. He woke up thinking about Vogel, and only stopped thinking about him when he went to bed (Melville once said this about himself, in regards to filmmaking). He comes home only to an entourage of cats, initiating the only smile that will spread across the man’s face throughout the film. Mattei's life is shrouded in police work, with the only bit of bliss coming through his bland and vacant apartment. He is, in the truest form of the word, alone. But more importantly, his isolation comes to define his profession, thus giving adherence to his relentless plight of catching the escaped Vogel.
It seems strange to have Mattei’s adeptly utilized story mixed among the misled pack, as its complexities are much more telling than Corey’s or Vogel’s, and its nuances are exact opposite of Jansen’s development. Jansen’s introduction comes in the worst form possible: poor character syntax. In fact, he has no syntax at all. He is discussed by Corey and Vogel as a possible wingman, which in turn leads into a short recap of his failed stint as a policeman and how it has shaped his personality. Jansen is introduced without ever appearing on the screen—an amateurish mistake that doesn’t reflect any Melville film I’d seen. Melville then indulges in an Edgar Allen Poe-like fantasy involving spiders and reptiles climbing up Jansen’s body. It’s a gripping image, but it reflects the man described by Vogel. Immediately Jansen becomes a product of these men’s plight, giving him less attachment to the heist than the already thinly drawn duo. In addition, the use of animals seems too commanding. While Melville seems content in the audience simply accepting Vogel and Corey as lone samurais, he adversely becomes resilient in painting Jansen as an impoverished drunk. While there are few inconsistencies in the film's somber mood, the inconsistencies that exists within the characters and how they’re presented creates a sense of detachment. And once we’re detached, we’re only left with the heist.
But hey, it could be worse. Melville's worst film is still better than many director's best film. His use of grisly colors go further in perpetuating the film's mood and the characters' fulfillment from such a profession than Melville's screenplay. His use of space is more tranquil than ever, as seen between Vogel and Corey's first meeting, where a endless field separates them, creating a sense of isolation and disconnectedness from society. And it’s not like the actual show-stopping 20-minuite heist isn’t gripping in its own right. Melville utilizes the environment more skillfully than ever before, creating tension in meticulousness and minor diversions. In fact, it's the closest we’ll come to be with these characters. As Corey pushes Vogel back as a guard peers into the bathroom, the viewer is being held back. As Vogel quietly hammers a circle opening from a window, we beg for him to be quieter. Allowing the character to dictate the action, and thus the mood, was always Melville’s strong suit. You have to wonder if Melville crafted the heist sequence before penning the rest of the script, for he is relentlessly specific in detail for the heist, but much less so for the characters performing the mission. It gives Le Cercle Rouge’s greatest moment a sense of emptiness, leaving only a sense of appreciation for the famed director finally fulfilling his dream. And for a director who made as many legendary films as Jean-Pierre Melville, can you blame him?
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