2. The Red Circle (Le Cercle Rouge) (1970)
Dir. Jean-Pierre Meville Cast: Alain Delon, André Bourvil, Gian-Maria Volonte and Yves Montand Alain Delon is the cool-cat jewel thief recently released from prison. He teams up with a murderer, Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonte) and a former cop/sharpshooter, Jansen (Yves Montand) to plot a jewel heist. All the while been tracked by the quiet, cat-loving police commissioner Mattel (André Bourvil). Mattel lives by one rule- every man is guilty and he must punish those he can. When I watched the movie Drive, I was very much reminded of this French classic. Like Drive, this is a very cool movie, in that there is that air of melancholic, existential detachment, yet it manages to work a lot better in this film. Alan Delon underplays the criminal much better. Le Cercle Rouge is a slow film, but it works much it is favour. It sticks to its guns all the way through, another director might have balked and had the ending play out quickly, but Meville maintains the pace through, leading up to a fantastic heist scene which takes about 20 minutes to play out. The length of the heist makes it far more tense and realistic than most heist films out there. If the idea of a slow pace doesnt put you off, Le Cercle Rouge makes for excellent viewing, and may well be the greatest French crime movie.