Army of Crime
Directed by Robert Guediguian
139 mins
* * * *
In the run up to the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, there’s been a wave of revisionist accounts of life under German occupation. Army of Crime is one of the better examples. Directed and co-scripted by Robert Guediguian, best known for his left-wing films of working-class life in the Marseilles area, this film concerns the complexities and dangers of resistance under the shroud of Nazism where no one can be trusted: neighbours, friends, family, authorities and police are all potential Nazi snitches. It opens with a convoy of buses going through the Paris streets carrying prisoners on their way to be executed. (Their stories are told in flashback.) We encounter the whispers of racism at the film’s beginning and slowly move towards the screams of revolutionaries in the development and rise of the resistance.
A small band of immigrants are led by a charismatic, but initially reluctant revolutionary: Armenian Missak Manouchian (brilliantly played by Simon Abkarian), who is happily married to a Frenchwoman (Virginie Ledoyen). They attack Nazis in cars, buses and buildings but this is no gung-ho war picture. This is a considered and intelligent investigation into a ragged bunch of resistance fighters who were aware they were being watched, possibly being betrayed, but who nonetheless display great courage in the face of the propaganda messages broadcast each day condemning Jews and communists. The torture scenes, carried out by willing collaborators, are horrific and are watched over by one whom we assume to be a sympathetic policeman from the 11th arrondissment, a poor area where many of the foreign immigrants live. But he is not all he seems as he befriends a woman whose Jewish husband is in prison. The web is complex and divisive.
Taking reference points from similar films by Rene Clement, Max Ophuls and in particular the downbeat Army of Shadows by Jean-Pierre Melville, this is a much needed antidote to the inanities of the recent Quentin Tarantino film about Nazi hunters. Dialogue heavy with discussions of freedom, human rights and the difficulties of pacifism under duress, this character-driven narrative never falters. The film title references the name given to the resistance by the Nazis. A film not to miss.
Lloyd Sellus.
Directed by Robert Guediguian
139 mins
* * * *
In the run up to the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, there’s been a wave of revisionist accounts of life under German occupation. Army of Crime is one of the better examples. Directed and co-scripted by Robert Guediguian, best known for his left-wing films of working-class life in the Marseilles area, this film concerns the complexities and dangers of resistance under the shroud of Nazism where no one can be trusted: neighbours, friends, family, authorities and police are all potential Nazi snitches. It opens with a convoy of buses going through the Paris streets carrying prisoners on their way to be executed. (Their stories are told in flashback.) We encounter the whispers of racism at the film’s beginning and slowly move towards the screams of revolutionaries in the development and rise of the resistance.
A small band of immigrants are led by a charismatic, but initially reluctant revolutionary: Armenian Missak Manouchian (brilliantly played by Simon Abkarian), who is happily married to a Frenchwoman (Virginie Ledoyen). They attack Nazis in cars, buses and buildings but this is no gung-ho war picture. This is a considered and intelligent investigation into a ragged bunch of resistance fighters who were aware they were being watched, possibly being betrayed, but who nonetheless display great courage in the face of the propaganda messages broadcast each day condemning Jews and communists. The torture scenes, carried out by willing collaborators, are horrific and are watched over by one whom we assume to be a sympathetic policeman from the 11th arrondissment, a poor area where many of the foreign immigrants live. But he is not all he seems as he befriends a woman whose Jewish husband is in prison. The web is complex and divisive.
Taking reference points from similar films by Rene Clement, Max Ophuls and in particular the downbeat Army of Shadows by Jean-Pierre Melville, this is a much needed antidote to the inanities of the recent Quentin Tarantino film about Nazi hunters. Dialogue heavy with discussions of freedom, human rights and the difficulties of pacifism under duress, this character-driven narrative never falters. The film title references the name given to the resistance by the Nazis. A film not to miss.
Lloyd Sellus.
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