Tonight on TV: Alain Delon in one of the greatest French thrillers with 4 million viewers

Jean-Pierre Melville, master of the French thriller

Jean Pierre Melville has marked French cinema with his dark thrillers. Among other things, we could mention The Samurai, The Red Circle or even A policeman. Films that often deal with the loneliness of gangsters and police that collide. The director’s impact is undeniable and goes beyond our borders. He has often been cited by foreign directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann.

The Red Circle (1970) It is one of those very influential works. Brought by Alain Delon (died August 18, 2024 at the age of 88), Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonte and Yves Montand, the film follows Corey, who is released from prison after five years. As soon as he leaves, he is offered a new move. After many adventures, the gangster meets Vogel, who has just escaped from Commissioner François Mattei. Together they will try to attack a jewelry store on the Place Vendôme in Paris. To pull off this robbery, they will have to rely on an excellent marksman capable of neutralizing the security system of the jewelry store. They then hire Jansen, who will prove up to the task despite his passion for alcohol.

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The Red Circlebig hit of 1970

The Red Circle It is a cult film, famous for this famous scene of the robbery at the jewelry store. A sequence that, for example, marked the director Jérémie Guez, who thinks about it every time he passes by Place Vendômeas he told us while promoting his series BRE on Canal+.

But it is from its release in theaters that Jean-Pierre Melville’s film leaves its mark. At that time, the feature film had accumulated over 4.3 million entries. An impressive score that a film of this type would hardly be able to achieve today. It must be said that in addition to being perfectly mastered by Melville, The Red Circle has the argument its prestigious castingvery popular in the 1970s, as pointed out The Figaro.

The film obviously deserves its incredible reunion of actors. We find a cold, dark, silent and impassive Delon. France was then in the midst of “Delonmania”. (…) And the Gaullist Delon joins forces in Le Cercle rouge with his travelling Communist Party companion Yves Montand. As in the Resistance, all of France meets and gathers together in Melville’s cinema. (…) And of course Bourvil, whose real name is André Raimbourg, who for the first time is no longer credited in the credits simply as “Bourvil” (his stage name) but, with his name, as “André Bourvil » (his real identity).

As for Bourvil, he was also very ill and received injections of morphine during filming. A month before the release, The legendary actor died on September 23, 1970doing this “unexpected and tragic role of a melancholic and determined police officer“.

Explanation of the movie title

Finally, there is an important detail in the film to understand the title of the movie. From the very beginning, Jean-Pierre Melville includes a long quote from Rama Krishna: “Çakya Muni the solitary, said Sidarta Gautama the wise, said that the Buddha took a piece of red chalk, drew a circle and said: When men, even if they ignore each other, have to meet again one day, everything can come to each of them. them, and they can follow divergent paths. On the appointed day, inevitably, they will be reunited in the red circle“.

To which must be added the sequence where Alain Delon plays billiards alone. In reference to the title, create a red circle with chalk on his pool cue. Since pool chalk is usually blue, the use of red chalk is obviously not trivial and adds symbolism to the sequence, further reinforced by the two white balls and the red ball that Corey’s character plays with.

This scene, and this quote from the beginning of the film, therefore refer to one of the themes of the film, namely the imprisonment of the protagonists and their tragic fate, as analyzed on the site Free knowledge : “A film in which settings, characters and behaviors revolve around the central theme of imprisonment to outline a destiny that resembles a tragic fatality: it is, in fact, a game of cat and mouse or, more seriously, a game of chess and mate, that is, of life and death that take place on the screen between gangsters and policemen.“.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.