Not deserving of its reputation
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oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx — 18 years ago(June 16, 2007 12:45 PM)
It is based on a novel, yes. But wouldn't you have thought that Melville had some sort of acuity for this subject, what with having fought with the Free French. At least some of his experiences have impacted on this movie. In that sense it is autobiographical.
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dayode714 — 19 years ago(August 02, 2006 09:17 AM)
I agree, as well, the notion that the simone signoret character mathilde would be so stupid as to keep her daughter's photo in her possession seems completely out of character. Not a bad movie, but not great by any means
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jriley555 — 19 years ago(August 29, 2006 08:26 PM)
just saw this at the local art cinema.
it was compelling, visually enthralling. on the history, however
it seemed rather flat. showing the resistance, outside of the context of the collaboration, did not ring true.
there can be no doubt that some people of enormous courage operated in such dire circumstances. just wish the palette was full. it would show their heroism more distincly.
but a damn good film. -
helaine2-1 — 19 years ago(October 03, 2006 12:14 AM)
Hello I read your post and I try to answer ( sorry for my English). You missed an important point : collaborationists are everywhere in this film. For example, Gerbier is arrested in the restaurant by the milicia of Vichy .
Best regards. -
Jackleton — 19 years ago(September 16, 2006 06:17 PM)
""This movie is well put together and the acting is uniformly fine, but the story is so fanciful that it borders on the silly. When the resistance fighter wants to get a message to a jailed colleague, he gets himself arrested and put in the same cell as his buddy. Oh sure, that'd work. The Gestapo was always nice about that. The big escape scene is ludicrous, with resistance fighters dropping a rope to their comrades (who face a Gestapo machine gun) so they can climb out. A joke, really. But it is packing 'em in at the Film Forum in New York. There is no accounting for it.""
what reputation?
only handfull of peoples non french saw this movie!
what's your point?
it's not a blockbuster to travel the world, just an autor filming a near documantary for his country mates!
L'arme des ombres is really for french peoples, foreigners couldn't understant it! -
turtlemom1 — 19 years ago(September 28, 2006 02:05 PM)
I just saw the film and was enthralled by it's spareness and noir mood.
The reality of the film is obvious to those who know their history of WW2. The resistance was plagued by paranoia and betrayal, yet many brave souls continued to participate, and many died. Their exploits are largely unknown, since anonymity was essential to survival, as this film made clear. If you were known, if you made a name for yourself, you were arrested and/or shot by the Nazis occupying France.
I was also impressed by the raw and real feel of the film some truly horrifying acts were played out as they might have really been without Hollywood bombastics. No need to show torture you saw the results and all else could be imagined [if modern audiences still have the capacity for using theirs].
Human history is mostly mundane and heroes often die unheralded. This film allows us to understand that reality. I think it's stunning. -
hiccough — 19 years ago(December 13, 2006 04:23 PM)
for those being tortured, which is mentioned a few minutes earlier. Whatsisname knew he'd be up for it, having turned himself in as resistance. It's funny that he didn't tell his comrades what he was doing though, since they wanted to let Felix know they were coming. What if, not knowing St John would do it, they'd tried something else, risky? Besides being heroic I don't see the point as long as he mentions that he had cyanide with him (so that they know they don't need to rescue him, as well).
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Krustallos — 19 years ago(January 09, 2007 08:03 AM)
I saw this film two or three decades back, before I knew it had a "reputation" and it's remained vividly with me ever since.
That tells me it's a pretty damn good movie, at the very least.
No heroics, just heroism.
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity. -
cm300401 — 19 years ago(February 01, 2007 05:02 PM)
I saw this film two days ago. in the q&a session after the film, we had a french historian fill us in on the background of the resistance. The escape from the firing squad scene, which is admittedly one of the more fantastical scenes in the movie, actually happened. Or at least, was based on a real escape, considering all the characters are fictional.
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TheMadRemix — 19 years ago(February 28, 2007 08:26 PM)
I just saw this a week ago: I wholeheartedly agree: it's a solid, well-made film, but NOT deserving of the over-the-top praise people lavish on it.
"Guessing won't be nessecary, she informed me"
-Kill Bill vol. 1 -
josephbleazard — 19 years ago(March 20, 2007 01:44 PM)
I agree with the original poster. Whilst this is a good movie with great moments, it is not a masterpiece. It is also badly mis-billed when described as unsentimental or realistic. Just because Melville was in the resistance, doesn't mean he would choose to make a picture about them without propagandising it.
The plot basically consists of resistance leaders all running around rescuing or eliminating each other. Are there no more than 6 people in the resistance? Not even the most bigoted american would believe that. Every french character is revealed as essentially decent and devoted to liberty (although the scene with the informant's execution is a brilliant exception and a wonderful piece of cinema). There are ludicrous coincidences in some of the escape scenes and when St luc and Jean-Francois are revealed to be brothers it is simply lachrymose. The source of some pieces of information are never revealed. Worst, every German character is completely dehumanised by the director's failure to let them speak.
A much much better movie about a resistance movement is "The battle of algiers" by Gille Pontecorvo. This is a balanced view of how a resistance functions, and ironically contains many figures from the french resistance now in the roles of opressors.
The monkeys all thought they were alone, all 6 billion of them -
dantbyrne — 19 years ago(March 26, 2007 01:26 AM)
I would agree that this film is far from deserving of its reputation, or at least of some of the wildly enthusiastic reviews posted here.
Some of the above comments appear to suggest that only a French national could appreciate this film. An interesting concept. The history of France under occupation is an extremely well-documented subject in modern history, and it should be noted that it was a non-Frenchman (Paxton) whose academic work began the slow dissolution of mythmaking regarding French Resistance and a re-engagement with the realities of the entirely comprehensible moral confusion of the occupation period. Any reasonably well-informed individual is capable of engaging with what is, in the final analysis, a rather one-dimensional and straightfoward account of the period in Melville's film.
The idea that this is a 'great' postwar French film is not credible. Even a cursory knowledge of the enormous wealth of truly great French cinema would reveal the relative simplicity, plodding narrative and lack of intellectual engagement which chracterises this film. It does pose some basic moral dilemmas, but compared to truly great and challenging pieces of that nation's cinema, this aspect is negligible.
Previous reviewers and posters have mentioned Pontercorvo's 'The Battle of Algiers' and Orphuls' 'The Sorrow and the Pity'. For those who have not yet seen Melville's film, do not be fooled into assuming that it approaches the quality of the two aforementioned productions in any aspect. -
sausagefactory2010 — 18 years ago(June 23, 2007 01:39 PM)
Not exactly sure of Lacombe Lucien but that's just my opinion. I would go to say there are some highly enthusiastic reviews here, saying things i didn't notice and thought didn't really capture the mood of the whole film. In my opinion, this is overrated by those who did not properly get it though, I ma say so myself is a good, solid film about humanity.
Though actually I thought Le Samourai was much better, but people hate me because of that