"No place to hide . . . nowhere to run . . ."
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.
Alain Delon
Corey
Bourvil
Commissioner François Mattei
Gian Maria Volonté
Vogel
Yves Montand
Jansen
François Périer
Santi
Paul Crauchet
The Receiver
André Ekyan
Rico
Paul Amiot
Marchand, Inspector General of Police
Pierre Collet
Prison Guard
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.
Jean-Pierre Meville's 1970 film Le Cercle rouge (The Red Circle) is a crime caper based on the interplay of several initially unacquainted individuals. As Melville's fake quote from the Buddha that serves as the intertitle goes, "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." These men are Corey (Alain Delon), who has just been released from prison, Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté), who has escaped from his police guard before he could even reach prison, and the alcoholic marksman Jansen (Yves Montand). In the jewelry heist that these desparate lowlifes plan together, they are pursued by the detective Mattei (André Bourvil). Meville's pacing is extremely slow – it has to be in order to ensure that the audience understands the complex relationships of who knows who – and suffice it to say, people who don't already like mid-century French auteur films may find this intolerable. However, if you are a fan of the French New Wave, you may find Meville's ability to sustain suspense a delicious torture. This viewer was on the edge of his seat the whole time waiting to find out what would happen next. Melville's visual aesthetic is also consistently attractive: muted colours, careful shots of the characters faces at a couple of key moments, and a striking constrast between the quiet world of these criminals and the bustle of everyday Paris. I must admit that I was prepared for some disappointment, as this was Meville's third film of criminal conspiracy in three years (preceded by the hitman drama Le Samouraï and the French Resistance saga L'Armée des ombres). However, in spite of Meville's continued interest in the genre, Le Cercle rouge offers something fresh and individual. There are a couple of intertextual looks back to Le Samouraï in the sets, but Meville shows how talented his favourite actors were by having a couple of good guys in that film play baddies in this one and vice versa. All in all, this is not a must-see, life-changing film, but certainly a classic film that has stood the test of time and well worth seeing.
Though it takes quite a while to get going, and I constantly wanted to rub that annoying moustache from the face of Alain Delon ("Corey") I really rather enjoyed this crime caper. Delon recruits the dapper ex-cop with a drink problem - "Jansen" (Yves Montand), and the recently escaped "Vogel" (Gian Maria Volontè) into his plan to rob an exclusive Parisian jewellers. Situated on the top floor of a town house with state of the art security, they must recce the scene and use all of their initiative and ingenuity to crack the systems and pinch - and dispose of - $20 million worth of loot. Simultaneously, a couple of hoodlums are chasing "Corey" after he relieved his former boss of some cash, and the police - led by accomplished copper "Mattei" (André Bourvil) are on the hunt for "Vogel". I can't say the acting set the thing on fire for me, it is certainly "cool" but you can over-do that, and at times these three men are pretty devoid of much depth to their characters. I could also have been doing with more going on in the first hour; the plot establishment all takes too long - but once Jean-Pierre Melville gets his ducks in a row and the film has a clearer focus, then the pace picks up nicely and there is quite a decent degree of tension peppered with the odd bit of dark humour. Not mad keen on the ending, but hey - that'd be telling.
Out of prison after a five-year stretch, jewel thief Tony turns down a quick job his friend Jo offers him, until he discovers that his old girlfriend Mado has become the lover of local gangster Pierre Grutter during Tony's absence. Expanding a minor smash-and-grab into a full-scale jewel heist, Tony and his crew appear to get away clean, but their actions after the job is completed threaten the lives of everyone involved.
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.
A Parisian police chief has an affair, but unbeknownst to him, the boyfriend of the woman he’s having an affair with is a bank robber planning a heist.
An ex-cop turned con threatens to jump to his death from a Manhattan hotel rooftop. The NYPD dispatch a female police psychologist to talk him down. However, unbeknownst to the police on the scene, the suicide attempt is a cover for the biggest diamond heist ever pulled.
After growing up in a poor gypsy camp, Edmond Vidal, aka Momon, has retained a sense of family, unfailing loyalty and pride in his origins. Most of all, he has remained friends with Serge Suttel, with whom he first discovered prison life - for stealing cherries. The two of them inevitably got involved in organized crime. The team they formed, the Ganf Des Lyonnais, made them the most notorious armed robbers of the early 1970s. Their irresistible rise ended in 1974 with a spectacular arrest. Today, as he nears 60, Momon would like to forget that part of his life. He has found peace by retiring from the "business". He tends to his wife Janou, who suffered so in the past, and to his children and grandchildren, all of whom have great respect for this man of simple and universal values, so clear-headed and full of kindness. But then Serge Suttel, who has disowned nothing of his past, comes back into the picture.
François, an ordinary Joe, falls hard for the sublimely beautiful woman who has just picked him up on the train and invited him to spend the weekend with her on the Riviera. But when the lady disappears the next morning and the police drag him in for questioning, François discovers he's been set up to pass for her notorious outlaw husband on the run, Anthony Zimmer. Even though he's been lied to and manipulated, François' life is changed forever and he's ready to give anything - maybe even his life - to hold this mysterious beauty in his arms again.
After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.
One of the members of a gang of thieves commits a serious mistake that force them to work for a ruthless gang of drug dealers, endangering the future of the team, their lives and those of their families.
In Paris, Bob Montagne is practically synonymous with gambling -- and winning. He is kind, classy and well-liked by virtually everyone in town, including police inspector Ledru. However, when Bob's luck turns sour, he begins to lose friends and makes the most desperate gamble of his life: to rob the Deauville casino during Grand Prix weekend, when the vaults are full. Unfortunately, Bob soon learns that the game is rigged and the cops are on to him.