Army of Shadows details
Movie Details:
- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Produced By: Corona Films, Valoria, Fono Roma
- Year: 1969
- Run Time: 140 minutes
- Country: Italy, France
- Language: French
- Set in: Marseille, France, Lyon, France
- Category: Feature
- Genre/Type: Drama
- Filmed In: Color
- Release: 2006 04 28 (USA - Limited Rerelease), 1970 10 06 (Italy), 1969 09 12 (France)
- Alternate Titles: L'Armée des Ombres, The Shadow Army
- Key Cast: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Simone Signoret, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Serge Reggiani, Claude Mann, Christian Barbier, Paul Crauchet, Full Credits
- Awards: Best Foreign Language Film (New York Film Critics Society 2006), Film Heritage Award (National Society of Film Critics 2006), Special Citation (Los Angeles Film Critics Association 2006), Full Awards
In this war drama set during the French Resistance of WW II, a courageous fighter escapes Gestapo headquarters and returns to Marseille. There he and his gang capture a traitor and throttle him. They then try to rescue a Resistance fighter in Lyons. As they do so, the hero is again captured and his partner killed. Again the hero escapes just before he is executed. He then finds that a female partner has been captured. To avoid having her daughter forced to work in a Nazi brothel, the woman has informed upon the others. She is then released and subsequently killed by another Resistance fighter for revenge. The screenplay is based on Joseph Kessel's novel and became filmmaker Jean Pierre Melville's magnum opus. by Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Keywords:
- arrest
- prostitute/prostitution
- escape
- firing-squad
- France
- Gestapo
- informer
- Nazism
- rescue
- resistance-fighters
- war
- occupation [military]
- capture
Themes:
- Life Under Occupation
