The Army of Crime
Encyclopedia
The Army of Crime is a 2009 French drama-war film
directed by Robert Guédiguian
and based on a story by Serge Le Péron, one of three credited for the screenplay
. It received a wide release in France on September 16, 2009 and opened in the United States in 2010.
The film deals with the events of the Affiche Rouge
("red poster") affair. The title was taken from the caption on a propaganda
poster, in which the Nazis sought to present prominent resistance
fighters as foreign criminals. The caption read "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime".
during the German occupation, an ill-assorted group of resistance fighters commits disorganized attacks. Missak Manouchian
, an Armenian
exile
, is ready to help but is reluctant to kill; for him, being ready to die but not to kill is an ethical matter. However, circumstances lead him to abandon his reluctance. Under his leadership, the group structures and plans its actions and thus the Manouchian network is born. The film traces the story of this group, from its shaping to the execution of its members in 1944.
on May 17, 2009. The film received largely positive reviews from French critics, with the website AlloCiné
awarding it a score of 3.52 out of 5.00 based on twenty-five major reviews. Positif
's Jean A. Gili praised the film as "spectacular" while Libération
's Didier Péron lamented the fact that the director seemed "paralyzed with respect" towards his subject, praising the young cast for its efforts in making the film seem fresh. In Paris Match
, Alain Spira similarly stated that the film suffered from classicism
and that emotion had trouble reaching the audience. In Première
, Véronique Le Bris criticized the time taken to introduce the various characters. In one of the more negative reviews, Pierre Murat wrote for Télérama
that while respectful, the film was insignificant and looked like a TV movie.
The Army of Crime fared well with international critics, with the website Screenrush awarding it a score of four out of five based on six major British reviews. Peter Brunette
of The Hollywood Reporter
wrote a positive review after seeing the film at Cannes, saying, "Though it drags here and there and is a bit flat in places, the film is solidly made and for the most part quite involving". In The Independent
, Anthony Quinn described the film as "sombre and gripping" while Dave Calhoun wrote in Time Out that the film is "always fascinating". In some of the worst reviews, The Sun
compared the film to Inglourious Basterds, stating that Tarantino
's film was "a lot more fun" and The Financial Timess Nigel Andrews mused that it felt "like every resistance movie you have ever seen".
, making it the second highest grossing new release of that week following District 9
, which debuted at the number one spot with almost twice as many screens. The film grossed just over 772,000 Euros in its first five days of release and has, as of October 20, attracted 349,940 viewers to French theaters.
and Blu-ray Disc
on January 19, 2010.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
directed by Robert Guédiguian
Robert Guédiguian
Robert Jules Guédiguian is a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer. Most of his films star Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin....
and based on a story by Serge Le Péron, one of three credited for the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
. It received a wide release in France on September 16, 2009 and opened in the United States in 2010.
The film deals with the events of the Affiche Rouge
Affiche Rouge
The Affiche Rouge is a famous propaganda poster, distributed by Vichy French and German authorities in the spring of 1944 in occupied Paris, to discredit 23 French Resistance fighters, members of the Manouchian Group...
("red poster") affair. The title was taken from the caption on a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
poster, in which the Nazis sought to present prominent resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
fighters as foreign criminals. The caption read "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime".
Plot
In ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during the German occupation, an ill-assorted group of resistance fighters commits disorganized attacks. Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian
Missak Manouchian was a French poet of Armenian birth, a militant communist in the MOI , and military commissioner of the FTP-MOI in the Paris region...
, an Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
, is ready to help but is reluctant to kill; for him, being ready to die but not to kill is an ethical matter. However, circumstances lead him to abandon his reluctance. Under his leadership, the group structures and plans its actions and thus the Manouchian network is born. The film traces the story of this group, from its shaping to the execution of its members in 1944.
Cast
- Virginie LedoyenVirginie LedoyenVirginie Fernandez , known by her stage name Virginie Ledoyen, is a French actress.-Life and career:She was born in Aubervilliers, Paris, the daughter of Olga, a restaurateur, and Bernard Fernandez, a merchant who sold cleaning products. Her paternal grandfather was Spanish...
as Mélinée Manouchian - Simon AbkarianSimon AbkarianSimon Abkarian is a French-Armenian actor.Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris...
as Missak ManouchianMissak ManouchianMissak Manouchian was a French poet of Armenian birth, a militant communist in the MOI , and military commissioner of the FTP-MOI in the Paris region... - Robinson StéveninRobinson Stévenin-Selected filmography:-Awards:In 2002 he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor for the film Bad Genres.- External links :...
as Marcel RaymanMarcel RaymanMarcel Rayman, alias Simon Maujean, Faculté, Michel, and Michel Mieczlav 1 May 1923, Warsaw, Poland − 21 February 1944, fort du Mont-Valérien) was a Polish Jew and volunteer fighter in the FTP-MOI group of French resistance fighters during World War II, and the head of "Stalingrad", a highly active... - Jean-Pierre DarroussinJean-Pierre DarroussinJean-Pierre Darroussin is a French film actor. He was born in Courbevoie, France on December 4, 1953. His films include the 2004 thriller Red Lights.-Filmography as actor:* 1979 : Coup de tête, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud...
as Inspecteur Pujol - Lola Naymark as Monique
- Ariane AscarideAriane AscarideAriane Ascaride is a French actress and screenwriter. She has appeared in such films as Marius et Jeannette , Ma vraie vie à Rouen and À la place du coeur...
as Madame Elek - Grégoire Leprince-RinguetGrégoire Leprince-RinguetGrégoire Leprince-Ringuet is a French actor.-Theatrical:Between 1998 and 2002, he was a member of the choir at the Opéra National de Paris.-Movie:...
as Thomas ElekThomas ElekThomas Elek, also known as Támas Elek and KERPAL was one of the members of the French resistance executed at the fort of Mont Valérien as a member of the Manouchian Group, a volunteer of the French liberation army FTP-MOI... - Yann Trégouët as Le Commissaire David
- Ivan Franek as Feri BoczovJoseph BoczovJoseph Boczov or József Boczor, aka Ferenc Wolff , was a chemical engineer, Hungarian Jew, and volunteer fighter for the French liberation army FTP-MOI. In 1942 Boczov founded and led the 4th detachment, called the dérailleurs, as they specialized in derailing trains...
- Olga Legrand as Olga BancicOlga BancicOlga Bancic , also known under her French nom de guerre Pierrette , was a Jewish Romanian communist, known for her role in the French Resistance during World War II. A member of the FTP-MOI and the Manouchian Group, she was captured by Nazi German forces in late 1943...
- Boris Bergman as Monsieur Rayman
- Patrick Bonnel as Monsieur Elek
- Adrien Jolivet as Henri KrasuckiHenri KrasuckiHenri Krasucki was a French trade-unionist, former secretary general of the Confédération générale du travail from 1982 to 1992.-Early life :...
- Gérard Meylan as Inspecteur Mathelin
- Horaţiu Mălăele as Monsieur Dupont
- Lucas BelvauxLucas BelvauxLucas Belvaux is a Belgian actor and film director. His directing credits include the Trilogie, consisting of three films with interlocking stories and characters, each of which was filmed in a different genre. The three films are Cavale, a thriller; Un couple épatant, a comedy; and Après la vie,...
as Gilles
Critical
It was screened out of competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival2009 Cannes Film Festival
The 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 13 to May 24, 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert was the President of the Jury. It was announced on March 19, 2009, that Pixar's film Up would open the festival...
on May 17, 2009. The film received largely positive reviews from French critics, with the website AlloCiné
AlloCiné
AlloCiné is a service organization providing information on the programs of french cinema, especially centering on novelties' promotion with DVD information. The enterprise is founded as telephonic communicator, then diversified as internet portal site, which offers sufficient information by fast...
awarding it a score of 3.52 out of 5.00 based on twenty-five major reviews. Positif
Positif (magazine)
Positif is a French film magazine, founded in 1952 by Bernard Chardère. It was published by Eric Losfeld.It often acted as a counterpoint to Cahiers du cinéma, another well-known French film journal, notably with Gerard Gozlan's article sarcastically titled "In Praise of André Bazin."The current...
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
, Alain Spira similarly stated that the film suffered from classicism
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
and that emotion had trouble reaching the audience. In Première
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
, Véronique Le Bris criticized the time taken to introduce the various characters. In one of the more negative reviews, Pierre Murat wrote for Télérama
Télérama
Télérama is a weekly French magazine owned by Le Monde S.A. Its primary contents are television and radio listings, though the magazine also prints film, theatre, music and book reviews, as well as cover stories and feature articles of cultural interest. The name is a contraction of its earlier...
that while respectful, the film was insignificant and looked like a TV movie.
The Army of Crime fared well with international critics, with the website Screenrush awarding it a score of four out of five based on six major British reviews. Peter Brunette
Peter Brunette
Peter Brunette was a film critic and film historian. He was the author of several books, including biographies of Italian directors Roberto Rossellini and Michelangelo Antonioni...
of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
wrote a positive review after seeing the film at Cannes, saying, "Though it drags here and there and is a bit flat in places, the film is solidly made and for the most part quite involving". In The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Anthony Quinn described the film as "sombre and gripping" while Dave Calhoun wrote in Time Out that the film is "always fascinating". In some of the worst reviews, The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
compared the film to Inglourious Basterds, stating that Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's film was "a lot more fun" and The Financial Timess Nigel Andrews mused that it felt "like every resistance movie you have ever seen".
Financial
Opening in 250 screens, The Army of Crime debuted at a disappointing number 7 at the French box officeBox office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
, making it the second highest grossing new release of that week following District 9
District 9
District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
, which debuted at the number one spot with almost twice as many screens. The film grossed just over 772,000 Euros in its first five days of release and has, as of October 20, attracted 349,940 viewers to French theaters.
Home video
The Army of Crime was released in France on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on January 19, 2010.