Based on a 1943 Joseph Kessel novel as well as Melville’s own experiences during World War II, Army of Shadows is a mesmerizing and haunting portrait of the Resistance in occupied France, for whose members paranoia, betrayal and the possibility of imprisonment, torture and execution are the stuff of everyday life. Melville’s mastery of the crime thriller and a complete absence of sentimentality combine to deliver a film both suspenseful and thoughtful, at once a celebration of heroism and a meditation on death and defeat. Cinematographer Pierre Lhomme had to struggle to convince Melville of his naturalistic lighting scheme, but the director’s attention to realism combined with Lhomme’s insistence on a cool, desaturated color scheme results in some of the most beautifully bleak images ever captured on film. – David Pendleton

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