Army of Shadows

Watch it a hundred times and the dread, bad-dream opening sequence of Nazi troops swarming through the Arc de Triomphe might still leave you reeling...

"Jean-Pierre Melville cherishes paradox and free thinking," and both elements are on beautiful display in his masterpiece.

As close to a masterpiece as any film you're likely to see this year.

A film to be seen and savored for its moral magnitude.

From the first sight of German soldiers goose-stepping past the Arc de Triomphe to a postscript that spells out the fate of characters whose moral confusion is all too real, Army of Shadows is a movie of its time -- and ours.

Unlike the romantic images of freedom fighters perpetuated by the popular media, Melville's movie is stripped of self-congratulatory hero worship and other puffery.

It may not be perfect, which is to say that the film does have its longeurs, but the way the disparate threads come together at the end is downright breathtaking. Believe the hype: Army of Shadows is, indeed, a masterpiece.

Jean-Pierre Melville’s most ambitious works.

Gaving fought in the Resistance, Melville understands such a state of mind more than any other filmmaker, which is why Army of Shadows emerges as a meditation more than a historical account.

Bleak and uncompromising.