Army of Shadows

For the book by Hillel Cohen, see Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948. For the Quebec documentary L'Armée de l'ombre, see Manon Barbeau.
Army of Shadows
2006 theatrical re-release poster
Directed byJean-Pierre Melville
Written byJean-Pierre Melville
Based onArmy of Shadows
by Joseph Kessel
Produced byJacques Dorfmann
StarringLino Ventura
Paul Meurisse
Jean-Pierre Cassel
Simone Signoret
CinematographyPierre Lhomme
Edited byFrançoise Bonnot
Music byÉric Demarsan
Production
companies
Distributed byValoria Films (France)
Fida Cinematografica (Italy)
Release dates
  • 12 September 1969 (1969-09-12) (France)
  • 6 October 1970 (1970-10-06) (Italy)
Running time
145 minutes
CountriesFrance
Italy
LanguagesFrench
German
English
Box office$928,632[1]

Army of Shadows (French: L'Armée des ombres; Italian: L'armata degli eroi) is a 1969 Franco-Italian World War II suspense-drama film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, and starring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret. It is an adaptation of Joseph Kessel's 1943 book of the same name, which mixes Kessel's experiences as a member of the French Resistance with fictional versions of other Resistance members.

The film follows a small group of Resistance fighters as they move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers, and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate.[2] While portraying its characters as heroic, the film presents a bleak, unromantic view of the Resistance.[3][4]

At the time of its initial release in France, Army of Shadows was not well-received, as, in the wake of the events of May 1968, French critics denounced it for its perceived glorification of Charles de Gaulle. American art-film programmers of the time took their cues from Cahiers du cinéma, which attacked the film on this basis,[4] so it was not released in the United States until 2006,[2][4] after a reappraisal of the film and Melville's oeuvre published in Cahiers du cinéma in the mid-1990s led to its restoration and re-release.[4] The film was critically acclaimed in the U.S. and appeared on many critics' lists of the best films of 2006.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Army of Shadows (2024)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on May 4, 2024. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (2006-05-21). "rogerebert.com: Great Movies: Army of Shadows". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  3. ^ a b Tobias, Scott. "Army Of Shadows". The A.V. Club.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Army of Shadows: Out of the Shadows". The Criterion Collection.