Army of Shadows 4K 1969 Ultra HD 2160p

Storyline
France, 1942, under German occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is a French Resistance commandant. Denounced by a French collaborator, he is interned in a concentration camp. He manages to escape, and rejoins his network in Marseille, where he has the traitor executed. This movie reveals rigorously and austerely what life was like in the French Resistance: the solitude and fear of its members; their relationships with one another; the constant threat of arrest by the Gestapo; the Resistance command structure and the way its orders were carried out. Head writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville were both veterans of the "Shadow Army".

User Review
ARMY IN THE SHADOWS (Jean-Pierre Melville - France/Italy 1969).

Jean-Pierre Melville's work features basically two themes: the world of crime and the French resistance. In Melville's eyes, these two worlds are very much the same. The gangster codes he adopted for many of his films were based largely on the codes of the French resistance and his own experiences during the German occupation (not the other way round as some people suggested).

Melville must be the most celebrated French director at this point in the U.S, after the re-release of "Army in the Shadows" in 2006, that was almost universally applauded by the critics as a work of genius or a forgotten masterpiece. Now, in many ways this is a good film, but something is missing, and I can't really put my finger on it. Perhaps it's the clinically almost surreal interaction between the characters, that worked so well in Melvile's gangsters film, but here he is depicting (admittedly his own ) reality and very much his personal take on French resistance, where "real life" plays a much greater part than in the surreal settings of many of his gangster films, but it doesn't feel that way when watching this. The film is languidly paced with a slow build-up, but never really catches fire. With Melville's characteristically cold - almost clinical - direction, it's partly captivating in parts, but perhaps the tone is a little too detached for my taste. He certainly takes his time to tell the story, but the acting is first class with Lino Ventura and Simone Signouret giving memorable performances among a first-rate cast.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (70.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#French: FLAC 1.0
#English: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Commentary by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau)

Info Subtitles

French SDH, English, German.