Le Cercle Rouge with Alain Delon: DVD Cover
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Le Cercle Rouge
a.k.a. The Red Circle Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Cast: Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonté, Yves Montand

DVD - 2 Disc Set - Wide Screen Learn more

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  • DVD Release Date: 10/28/2003
  • Original Release: 1970
  • Rating: Rated PG
  • Sales Rank: 515

Viewer Rating: (1 ratings)

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  • Overview
  • Editorial Reviews
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Features

Newly restored, complete, uncut version enhanced for widescreen televisions; Excerpts from Cinéastes de Notre Temps: Jean-Pierre Melville (Portrait en 9 Poses); New video interviews with the author of "Melville on Melville," Rui Nogueira, and assistant director Bernard Stora; 30 minutes of rare on-set and archival footage featuring interviews with director Melville and stars Alain Delon, Yves Montand, and André Bourvil; Original theatrical trailer and 2003 Rialto Pictures re-release trailer; Production and publicity stills, poster gallery; 24-page booklet featuring an introduction from director John Woo, new essays by film critics Michael Sragow and Chris Fujiwara, a reprinted interview with composer Eric Demarsan, and excerpts from "Melville on Melville"; New and improved English subtitle translation; Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

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Scene Index

Side #1 -- Disc One
1. The Circle Is Drawn [12:06]
2. Escape [5:03]
3. Wake-Up Call [5:10]
4. Billiards [5:50]
5. Manhunt [6:23]
6. Roadside Assistance [3:32]
7. The Coast Is Clear [6:58]
8. Forest Road [4:37]
9. No One Is Innocent [4:13]
10. Return Home [3:11]
11. Santi's [5:00]
12. Crack Policeman [7:09]
13. Low Profile [6:11]
14. Casing the Premises [5:28]
15. Preparations [8:30]
16. Arrival [14:18]
17. The Heist [12:29]
18. Born Innocent [12:12]
19. The New Fence [4:53]
20. Full Circle [7:31]

Scene Index

Editorial Reviews

Part of the genius of Jean-Pierre Melville was that he was able to take the formal elements of the crime film and put a thoroughly individual stamp on them -- his best films take the stuff of a thousand grade-B thrillers and invest them with a singular intelligence and quiet cool. On the surface, Le Cercle Rouge concerns two criminals thrown into a slightly uneasy alliance with a corrupt and alcoholic ex-cop to pull off a heist, but in Melville's hands this becomes a story about kindred spirits brought together through chance and unforeseen circumstance; their lives on the other side of the law have as much to do with their own personal sense of ethics and honor as those of the lawmen who struggle to track them down. Melville's clean, elegant framing of shots and his appreciation of the value of silence gives this picture a spare but satisfying feel quite different from most European crime films, and the subtle but sharply etched performances of Alain Delon, Gian Maria Volonté, and Yves Montand are the ideal embodiment of Melville's notion that less is more. In 1970, Le Cercle Rouge received a spotty release in the United States in a version cut by some 40 minutes; the uncut print finally received a belated American release in 2002, and in its pristine form, Le Cercle Rouge reveals itself as a film whose subtle touch only adds to the tension and suspense it generates -- a valuable lesson for filmmakers who believe that the function of genre filmmaking is to slap the viewer about the face and neck. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

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Cercle Rougeby Anonymous

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February 29, 2004: I just saw this film yesterday as part of a local French Film Festival and I must say that it is Cinema at it's finest. In an era when heist film means either ridiculus buddy pic or action packed shoot em up chase film this is a breath of fresh air. If you are a fan of film's like 'hana bi' by Beat Takeshi you must see this film just to see where Beat copped is style of elegant violence from... or if you are a fan of Tarantino or John Woo you must see this because the both count Melville as one of their biggest influences for his ethos of Honour Amongst Thieves. If you are a fan of Noir You MUST SEE THIS just for the fact that Melville is one of the genre's best. Lastly if you are a fan of cinema you must see this so as to witness what film is actually capable of. In Short... Buy This Now if you have any l'adore pour film, le cinemateque et la vie.