# Army of Shadows
**Army of Shadows** (*L'Armée des ombres*) is a 1969 French war drama directed by [Jean-Pierre Melville](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-pierre-melville), adapted from Joseph Kessel's 1943 novel of the same name, that follows a network of [French Resistance](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-resistance) fighters under the German occupation during World War II[1](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb166535005). It stars Lino Ventura as Resistance leader Philippe Gerbier, with Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and [Simone Signoret](https://www.edgepedia.org/simone-signoret)[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows). Dismissed by French critics on its release in September 1969 and unseen in American theaters until 2006, it is now widely regarded as the summit of Melville's career[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *L'Armée des ombres*; France/Italy co-production, French language[1](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb166535005) |
| Director and source | Jean-Pierre Melville (1917–1973), adapted from Joseph Kessel's 1943 novel[1](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb166535005) |
| French release | CNC visa dated 17 September 1969; release in French theaters 13 September 1969; visa duration 145 min[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=35415) |
| Principal cast | Lino Ventura (Philippe Gerbier), Paul Meurisse (Luc Jardie), Jean-Pierre Cassel (Jean François Jardie), Simone Signoret (Mathilde)[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Pierre Lhomme and Walter Wottitz; editing Françoise Bonnot; music Eric De Marsan; production design Théobald Meurisse[5](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3409army.html) |
| US reception | First US theatrical release in 2006; Metascore 99 from 24 critic reviews, rated "Universal Acclaim"[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/) |
| Aggregator scores | 97% Tomatometer (79 reviews) and 93% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows) |
## Spoilers
### Story and approach
The film is set in occupied France in 1942 and 1943. Philippe Gerbier, an engineer accused of Gaullist sympathies, is arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned, and escapes; he resumes command of an underground Resistance network whose members operate under code names such as "Le Bison" and "Le Masque"[7](https://www.institutfrancais.com/fr/magazine/cinema/larmee-ombres-jean-pierre-melville). The plot follows the network's everyday work of action and survival: arrests, escapes, the passing and carrying out of orders, and the execution of an informant who betrayed Gerbier[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows) • [8](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/224/181/46560/presse/%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E7%A5%AD-2010-market-guide-1.pdf).
Melville's stated aim was a demystified portrait. Rather than spy-thriller heroics, the film shows the workaday grind of clandestine resistance, in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia, and distrust, and it allows no character a triumphant exit[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows) • [9](https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6295873/army-of-shadows-1969/) • [10](https://www.cinematheque.fr/zooms/silencemer/en/telechargement/Melville.pdf). Where Kessel, writing in London in 1943 when the war seemed winnable, gave his story an open and guardedly optimistic ending, Melville, looking back more than twenty-five years later, denies anyone a way out alive[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows).
## Origins and production
Melville, born Jean-Pierre Grumbach, joined the Resistance on French soil and reached London in 1943, where he adopted the pseudonym Melville in homage to the author of *Moby-Dick*[11](https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/actualites/cinq-choses-a-savoir-sur-larmee-des-ombres_1047160). He carried the project of a Resistance film for roughly 25 years, and the film is generally described as his most personal work[7](https://www.institutfrancais.com/fr/magazine/cinema/larmee-ombres-jean-pierre-melville) • [12](https://www.criterion.com/films/153). Kessel, himself a Resistant, published his novel in Algiers in 1943, changing only places and names so as not to expose real networks; the film's London sequence does not appear in the novel and draws directly on Melville's own memories[11](https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/actualites/cinq-choses-a-savoir-sur-larmee-des-ombres_1047160).
The film came together after Melville's run of crime pictures (*Le Deuxième Souffle*, *[Le Samouraï](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-samourai)*) gave him the standing to attempt the adaptation, with producer Robert Dorfmann sending his son Jacques to Melville as associate producer[11](https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/actualites/cinq-choses-a-savoir-sur-larmee-des-ombres_1047160) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows). The shoot was stormy, marked by a falling-out with Lino Ventura[7](https://www.institutfrancais.com/fr/magazine/cinema/larmee-ombres-jean-pierre-melville). Visually, the film uses muted Eastmancolor drained of warm tones, in Melville's trademark charcoal and midnight-blue palette[13](https://filmint.nu/army-of-shadows-1969/) • [14](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/critic-reviews/).
## Reception and rediscovery
The timing of the French release in the fall of 1969 worked against the film. Most serious French critics, including those of the influential *Cahiers du cinéma*, attacked it as a glorification of General Charles de Gaulle, who as president was despised by the post-May 1968 left; the film performed poorly at the French box office[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows) • [15](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/army-of-shadows/). It failed to secure American distribution at the time, and a subtitled version was classified for British cinema release only in 1978[13](https://filmint.nu/army-of-shadows-1969/) • [16](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/larmee-des-ombres-army-of-shadows-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynzgzmde).
The turnaround began in the mid-1990s, when *Cahiers du cinéma* published a reconsideration of Melville and of the film, leading to a restoration of the original 35 mm camera negative by [StudioCanal](https://www.edgepedia.org/studiocanal) and a Rialto Pictures release in the United States in 2006, the film's first American theatrical run[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows). The 2006 restoration was supervised by original cinematographer Pierre Lhomme[14](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/critic-reviews/). American critics rallied around it: the film holds a Metascore of 99, the highest "Universal Acclaim" band, based on 24 reviews with none mixed or negative[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/), and a 97% Tomatometer[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows). It won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the National Society of Film Critics[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/). Melville did not live to see any of this; he died in 1973 at age 55[9](https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6295873/army-of-shadows-1969/).
## Place in Melville's work
*Army of Shadows* was the third and final film in which Melville dealt directly with the German occupation of France, after *Le silence de la mer* (1949) and *Léon Morin, prêtre* (1961), and his only film devoted to the Resistance[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows). Made in the middle of his late run of gangster films, it shares with them a precise, distanced, procedural style, and its casting of Ventura, known for underworld roles, reinforces the connection[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows) • [17](https://www.kpbs.org/news/2006/06/28/army-of-shadows). The film endorses the "official" Gaullist version of the Resistance while locating its moral force elsewhere, in its resolute sobriety and its refusal to glamorize fighters portrayed as shadows rather than heroes[18](https://mubi.com/en/films/army-of-shadows/critics-reviews). It is now widely considered Melville's signature work and one of the defining French films of the 1960s[12](https://www.criterion.com/films/153) • [18](https://mubi.com/en/films/army-of-shadows/critics-reviews).
## References
1. [Notice de titre conventionnel "L'armée des ombres (film)", Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb166535005)
2. [Army of Shadows, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/army_of_shadows)
3. [Amy Taubin, "Army of Shadows: Out of the Shadows", The Criterion Collection (2011)](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/483-army-of-shadows-out-of-the-shadows)
4. [Visas et Classification, visa n° 35415, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=35415)
5. [Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant Blu-ray Review: Army of Shadows, DVD Talk](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3409army.html)
6. [Army of Shadows Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/)
7. ["L'Armée des ombres de Jean-Pierre Melville", Institut français](https://www.institutfrancais.com/fr/magazine/cinema/larmee-ombres-jean-pierre-melville)
8. [L'Armée des ombres press kit, Unifrance (Singapore French Film Festival 2010)](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/224/181/46560/presse/%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB%E7%A5%AD-2010-market-guide-1.pdf)
9. ["Army of Shadows (1969): 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades", TIME (2023)](https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6295873/army-of-shadows-1969/)
10. [Zoom Melville, La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/zooms/silencemer/en/telechargement/Melville.pdf)
11. ["Cinq choses à savoir sur « L'Armée des ombres »", CNC (2021)](https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/actualites/cinq-choses-a-savoir-sur-larmee-des-ombres_1047160)
12. [Army of Shadows (1969), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/153)
13. [Film International, "Army of Shadows (1969)"](https://filmint.nu/army-of-shadows-1969/)
14. [Army of Shadows critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-shadows/critic-reviews/)
15. [Army of Shadows (1969), The Definitives, Deep Focus Review](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/army-of-shadows/)
16. [L'armee Des Ombres - Army Of Shadows, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/larmee-des-ombres-army-of-shadows-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynzgzmde)
17. [Beth Accomando, "Army of Shadows", KPBS Public Media (2006)](https://www.kpbs.org/news/2006/06/28/army-of-shadows)
18. [Army of Shadows (1969) critics reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/army-of-shadows/critics-reviews)
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