Synopsis
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.
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Cast
- Alain DelonCorey
- BourvilCommissioner François Mattei
- Gian Maria VolontéVogel
- Yves MontandJansen
- François PérierSanti
- Paul CrauchetThe Receiver
- André EkyanRico
- Paul AmiotMarchand, Inspector General of Police
- Pierre ColletPrison Guard
- Jean-Pierre PosierMattei's Assistant
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
There is one cool, understated scene after another. - 100
Boston Globe
For some of us, this constitutes a religious event. - 100
Chicago Tribune
Watching Le Cercle Rouge, we're caught up in a world that, however improbable some of its twists and turns seem, strikes us as a perfect, imaginative creation. - 100
Christian Science Monitor
A glistening gem among caper movies, this impeccably elegant jewel-heist drama takes its title from Buddhist lore, its cast from France's great gallery of leading men, and its style from the unique blend of cinematic savoir-faire and brooding existential angst. - 90
L.A. Weekly
Melville seems to peer out from behind the camera with a reassuring wink and nod. Le Cercle Rouge is the most self-consciously cool of his famously underheated films noirs. - 90
Washington Post
For students of cool ... Le Cercle Rouge is required viewing. - 90
New York Magazine (Vulture)
At its best, the film compares favorably to its obvious antecedents, "Rififi" (which Melville once hoped to direct) and "The Asphalt Jungle." - 80
Village Voice
A work of leisurely development and tragic inevitability.
