![Le Cercle Rouge (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1970)](/wp_content/uploads/2011/04/51Ivz0O8KHL._SL500_AA300__150x150.jpg "Le Cercle Rouge (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1970)")
LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970, Blu-ray released April 12, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
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Writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville crafts in his penultimate work, Le Cercle Rouge, the ultimate Euro-gangster heist film – a distillation of elements gleaned through years of devouring American movies and projected through the lens of French cinema. It’s a riveting film that looks and sounds better than ever on newly issued Blu-ray disc from The Criterion Collection.
- “Alain Delon plays a master thief, fresh out of prison, who crosses paths with a notorious escapee (Gian Maria Volonté) and an alcoholic ex-cop (Yves Montand). The unlikely trio plot a heist, against impossible odds, until a relentless inspector and their own pasts seal their fates. Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le cercle rouge combines honorable antiheroes, coolly atmospheric cinematography, and breathtaking set pieces to create a masterpiece of crime cinema. “
You never really get to know the details of the lives of any of Melville’s cool customers in Le Cercle Rouge but it doesn’t matter. He’s very clear about what makes each man tick (there are virtually no women in the film – Melville was notoriously unable to write women to his satisfaction so largely left them to smaller, supporting roles). And I don’t know about you but I could watch a false-mustachioed Delon strut around Paris being a gangster for hours on end without any kind of background or story involved. The details Melville does focus on – wardrobe, sets, lighting, pulling the perfect heist – all strangely combine in the film to conjure a world less specific than the man who created it. In the end, without that personal connection to the characters, just an affection for the way they wear their overcoats, shoot a gun and avoid unnecessary conversation, Le Cercle Rouge leaves you with less cathartic satisfaction than you’d expect from such a classic crime thriller but instead sticks in your craw with images, sounds and ambiance that are inescapable. It’s a brilliant, unconventional heist film and one of the Melville’s finest works.
Criterion upgrades their previously available DVD edition of Le Cercle Rouge with a stunning 1080p transfer on Blu-ray. The debate over the colour timing of the film is alive and well here, as the Blu-ray hues close to Criterion’s DVD values, far warmer, with more vibrant reds and browns than the cool, steely Studio Canal transfer. It’s anyone’s guess at this point as to which version is correct or closer to the original intent. Nevertheless, this is stunning work, exhibiting more detail and deeper blacks than its standard-def counterpart. And easy upgrade from DVD, if you ask me.
From the liner notes:
- “This high-definition transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from 35 mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, while Digital Vision’s DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.“
The French LPCM 1.0 sound track is clean and clear, with no perceptible distortion. Eric Demarsan‘s score sounds surprisingly full and rich in this lossless track.
From the liner notes:
- “The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm magnetic soundtrack. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.“
Is it just me or does a Criterion release without a commentary track feel kind of naked and unfinished? My lament aside, Le Cercle Rouge provides some solid special features on Blu, all ported over from the previously issued DVD. Of those, the two half-hour long interviews (one with assistant director Bernard Stora and the other with the author of ‘Melville on Melville‘, Rui Nogueria) and the excerpts from the program ‘Cinéastes de notre temps‘ are the most illuminating, the former featuring plenty of anecdotes of the director and the production and the latter offering a solid look at the man himself, often in his own words.
Highly recommended!
Special Features:
- Restored, complete, uncut version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Excerpts from Cinéastes de notre temps: “Jean-Pierre Melville”
- Video interviews with assistant director Bernard Stora and Rui Nogueria, the author of Melville on Melville
- Thirty minutes of rare on-set and archival footage, featuring interviews with director Jean-Pierre Melville and stars Alain Delon, Yves Montand, and André Bourvil
- Original theatrical trailer and 2003 Rialto Pictures rerelease trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critics Michael Sragow and Chris Fujiwara, excerpts from Melville on Melville, a reprinted interview with composer Eric Demarsan, and an appreciation from director John Woo
[...] upgrade from the previously available DVD and the latter and must-have on Blu. I’ve got a lengthy review of the Melville up now, so check it out for more detail on the disc. I’ll update this blurb with a link to [...]