In this crime film there is no noise with useless music. Simplicity and mastery do the work. Watching Alain Delon, Yves Montand and Bourvil is a real pleasure. Jean-Pierre Melville delivers a Masterpiece and I'm thankful for such greatness.

LE CERCLE ROUGE is a masterpiece, even if the ending is a bit too pat for my liking. First, we see Delon - in one of his finest roles ever - released from jail and he is quick to surmise that his wife has been cheating on him, and he knows with whom, too. Gian Maria Volonte manages to elude police inspector André Bourvil - a memorable against type performance from a comedian riddled with cancer and in his final role here -- and joins up with Delon in unusual but totally believable circumstances, allowing the two men to bond; and Yves Montand, a drunkard who was once a top police officer and crack shot, now suffering evils similar to those of Ray Milland in THE LOST WEEKEND (US 1945).Jean-Pierre Melville confessed in his autobriography that he had wanted to team up Delon and Belmondo in LE CERCLE ROUGE, but Belmondo felt that his role would be far less substantial than Delon's and decided not to appear in the movie. Looking at Volonte's part, which Melville initially intended for Belmondo, I think the latter was right but Melville also said that he planned to make it meatier if Belmondo came on board.In the end, the acting is exceptional all round, so Belmondo is not missed. Each of the three main characters is flawed in some way, both in terms of behaviour and of some mental ineptitude, and that is a theme in the movie, how everyone is limited by an invisible circle of personal limitations.As a police interrogator (brilliantly played by Périer) points out, everyone is a sinner, even a youngster he booked on charges of drug consumption, to put pressure on his father, only to find out that the kid actually took drugs.The action sequences are first class (the heist is brilliant), the dialogue sharp and realistic, and photography remarkable in its simplicity and effectiveness.Ultimately, I expected a little bit more of a fight at the end, but it is a crisp and swift ending which shows the character played by Bourvil as he is: a man doing his job above all other considerations.LE CERCLE ROUGE also left me with the impression that the criminals are on both sides of the circle, but the ones on the side of the law have more power in their hands. I've seen this thought-provoking film some five times in the last 25 years, and will probably go back to it soon. Strongly recommended!

Melville is overrated. The story in Le Circle Rouge is actually well put together (and features a fine brochette of well-known actors of the era) but it still feels like the work of a one-track-mind guy who believes guys are guys, and only guys know about life - how hard and how full it is. (The women in Melville's scripts never amount to much. In this movie, they are either mute cabaret dancers, child-like bunny waitresses who stand as background with nothing to do, and 1 lying cheating two timing Lilith- and of course that one is completely naked the only time we see her, and for no real good reason. Need I say: not one of these women gets more than 1 speaking line, when they do get to speak. Melville, your auteur vision is called Misogyny.) The heist is suspenseful, some plot twists are well introduced, 2 or 3 scenes stand out, but all in all, it feels too long, and very artificial (Yo, Melville, dude, what 's up with the 60s American cars featured in ALL your films? Hello, how many of these cars really ran around Paris in 1970?! And how discreet they must have been as gangsters getaway cars....!) It is preciously noir and dead serious, but in the end it is shallow. I'd give 4 Melvilles for 1 B-movie with Bogart and true heft in it.

"The Red Circle" (Le Cercle Rouge) is an exceptionally well executed heist film of the old-school variety, featuring four well known European actors: Alain Delon, Yves Montand, Gian Maria Golante, and Andre Bourvil, written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Unlike recent Hollywood heist films involving complicated acrobatics, electronic expertise and an inevitable love interest, "Le Cercle Rouge" is refreshingly straight forward, careful , if slow-moving in its exposition, and well acted. Without going into plot details, Delon is an ex-con, Golante a murderer who escaped police custody and is on the run, Montand is an ex-police sharpshooter in the grips of post-spree DTs when he's introduced and Bourvil is the police inspector who pursues them. Montand's performance in an uncharacteristic role is worth a special note. If you like heist films and have not been spoiled by Hollywood excess, this film is worth pursuing.