"Le Circle Rouge"

Valarie got me the Criterion Collection DVD of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 masterpiece, and it just gets better each time. I'd seen it twice before, once on the big screen when it was rereleased this year. Although Le Samourai will probably always be my favorite Melville film (and easily in my top 3 or 4 favorite films of any kind, all-time), I think Le Circle Rouge is kind of a Vertigo to Le Samourai's Rear Window. It's more complex and perhaps more ambitious. I just never get tired of great French noirs. They're very sincere in their affection for and debt to American noirs of the 1940s and 50s, yet because it's one country riffing on the work of another, there's that level of postmodernism that adds an extra layer of meaning. Plus the French have an added sense of style that's perfect for noir. Alain Delon arguably looks as cool in his trenchcoat and fedora as Bogart ever did.