I can't say that Cercle Rouge is an overlooked masterpiece, but it's an amazing antidote to the current style of filmmaking in which silence and causal relationships are routinely disregarded.
Comment
08/15/03
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
100
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Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:19
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8.5/10
Consensus: Melville is at the top of his game, giving us his next-to-last entry into the world of deception, crime, and extreme suspense that made him a maestro of the French heist genre.
Theatrical Release:Jan 10, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: Jean-Pierre Melville's hugely influential film remains a cornerstone of the crime genre. Recently released from prison, thief Corey (Alain Delon) finds himself caught up in a dangerous triangle... [More]
Starring: Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volonte, Yves Montand
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
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Reviews for Le Cercle Rouge
1 - 19 (sorted by date)
Top CriticIf you ever wanted to know how to look good wearing a trenchcoat, lighting a cigarette, handling a revolver, drinking a whiskey or overpowering an armed guard, Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 gangster drama is your guide.
07/24/03
Top CriticThe director's penultimate work.
06/27/03
Top CriticA slo-mo gem of gangster cool.
06/19/03
Top CriticStylish, meticulous and moody, thanks largely to the work of cinematographer Henri Decae.
06/12/03
Top CriticA moody, deliberately paced meditation on destiny (and style) enlivened by stunning bits of business.
06/05/03
Top CriticThere is one cool, understated scene after another.
05/23/03
Top CriticA classic of the clenched-fist, dark-skied, doom-laden world of noir.
05/22/03
Top CriticA minor classic, mainly for reasons besides its crime story plot -- namely, the urbane fatalism of its cast and the overall mood of inevitability that hangs over every scene.
05/02/03
Top CriticCercle's set piece -- which arrives well beyond the midpoint -- never has the carat-weight of the gem mounted in the middle of Rififi, but once it has turned that corner, the movie begins to soar.
05/01/03
Top CriticEnthrallingly retro-cool.
04/27/03
Top CriticThere are unforgettable tableaux of movement, meticulously executed with wordless cool.
04/11/03
Top CriticWitty chatter and cool atmospherics may be familiar stuff to anyone who has watched a crime movie or three. But this is where this kind of business began.
04/11/03
Top CriticA dazzling epic of love, guns, gangsters and cigarettes.
03/13/03
Top CriticWatching the movie, one is afraid to make the slightest sound for fear of betraying the stealthy criminals onscreen.
03/13/03
Top CriticThe antidote to every square tough-guy caper you've ever seen, and the inspiration for many great ones.
03/01/03
Top CriticHenri Decae's (1915-1987) marvelously precise cinematography, inspiringly attuned to Melville's tragic vision of the lives and deaths of the most stoical criminals in the noir genre, is alone worth the price of admission.
01/17/03
Top CriticLe Cercle Rouge offers the kind of experience that makes you glad movies exist.
01/10/03
Top CriticThe elegantly functional script pivots on a neat series of reversals and chance intersections.
01/07/03
Top Critic1 - 19 (sorted by date)
Latest News for Le Cercle Rouge
April 15, 2008:
Neeson, Bloom, Chow Yun Fat in Heist Caper? 
According to at least one news site, Orlando Bloom, Chow Yun Fat, and Liam Neeson are starring in a remake of the 1970 French film The Red Circle for director Johnny To. More...
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