Événement

Army of Shadows @ Robert Classic French Film Festival

Friday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.
Army of Shadows/L'armée des ombres
Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969, 145 min., color, Blu-ray projection source

Atmospheric and gripping, "Army of Shadows" is Melville's most personal film, featuring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler's regime. This masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville about the French Résistance went unreleased in the United States for 37 years, until its triumphant theatrical debut in 2006.

"Army of Shadows" was met with near-universal acclaim on its belated U.S. premiere, with the New York Film Critics Circle naming it Best Foreign Film. Writing in Salon, Stephanie Zacharek -- now film critic at Time -- described "Army of Shadows" as "a lost masterpiece" and hailed it as "not just one of the great films of the '60s, but one of the great films -- period." The New York Times' Manohla Dargis echoed the praise, calling the film "a rare work of art that thrills the senses and the mind" and "worthy of that overused superlative 'masterpiece.'"

With an introduction and post-film discussion by Pier Marton, video artist and unlearning specialist at the School of No Media. Marton has lectured with his work at the Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum, and the Walker Art Center and has taught at several major U.S. universities. His father, photographer Ervin Marton, was in the French Résistance.