THE ARMY OF CRIME
JORDAN MINTZER

Variety
117940302.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
May 19 2009

Powered By A StudioCanal release of an Agat Films & Cie, StudioCanal,
France 3 Cinema production, with participation of Canal Plus,
CineCinema, France 3, L’Agence Nationale pour la Cohesion Sociale
et L’Egalite des Chances — L’ACSE — Fonds Images de la Diversite,
CNC. (International sales: StudioCanal, Paris.) Produced by Dominique
Barneaud, Marc Bordure, Robert Guediguian. Directed by Robert
Guediguian. Screenplay, Guediguian, Serge Le Peron, Gilles Taurand,
based on an original idea by Peron.

With: Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, Robinson Stevenin, Gregoire
Leprince-Ringuet, Lola Naymark, Yann Tregouet, Ariane Ascaride,
Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Ivan Franek, Adrien Jolivet.

Despite a title and subject similar to Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1969
masterwork "The Army of Shadows," Gallic wartime fresco "The Army
of Crime" is a less thrilling and more academic take on the doomed
efforts of the French Resistance. Based on the actual plights of a
WWII underground immigrant brigade, vet helmer Robert Guediguian’s
lengthy period yarn features a wide array of characters filmed with
his habitual simpatico eye, but loses the dramatic thread in too many
plots, too little action and not enough originality. Imposing "Army"
should score local victories, but overseas campaigns will be limited
to mere surgical strikes.

Widely popular in French WWII lore and previously tackled by the 1976
film "L’Affiche rouge," the FTP-MOI was a Parisian-based branch of the
Resistance whose members were Communist immigrants hailing from all
parts of Europe. When 10 of its top fighters were executed in early
1944, the Vichy regime plastered a now legendary red-colored poster
around Paris that depicted the men as terrorists and bore the slogan
"Liberators? The Liberation, by the Army of Crime."

Beginning with the group’s final paddy wagon ride to the firing
range and then cutting to two-plus hours of backstory, the script
initially hops between the four protags until uniting them about
halfway through. Although such a structure allows the filmmakers to
painstakingly construct the trajectory of each character, it severely
hinders the flow of the narrative and fails to make the ongoing threat
of capture, torture and death seem either real or suspenseful.

The plot focuses primarily on the band’s Armenian-born leader, Missak
Manouchian (played by French-Armenian actor Simon Abkarian), who’s
first arrested and then released from prison while his fighting,
charmer g.f. (Virginie Ledoyen) watches in disbelief: A seductive,
soft-spoken poet with strong political convictions but little desire
to draw blood, Missak soon takes up the reigns of a movement whose
principal activities entail distributing pamphlets and slaying Nazis
in the street.

He finds a pair of worthy acolytes in two young Jewish troublemakers,
Marxist bomb-rigger Thomas (Gregory Leprince-Ringuet) and athletic
sharpshooter Marcel (Robinson Stevenin). As their collected killings
get increasingly gruesome, the SS-administered police begin to crack
down on their network, using a local detective (played by Guediguian
regular Jean-Pierre Darroussin) to snuff out those in charge.

Had the story concentrated merely on Missak and his two cohorts, it
might have been engaging in the way of Melville’s film, which limited
the action to Lino Ventura’s harrowing p.o.v. But its cumbersome
attempt to follow 18 characters (including the three protags’ different
friends and family members) makes for too many minor plots, which
are handled in quick succession with little cinematic intensity.

What Guediguian gets right is the eerie mood of Vichy-era France,
where most of the population continued life as usual while their
fellow countrymen were being shipped off to Auschwitz or burned
alive at their local police station. Well-chosen exteriors, filmed in
warm hues by Pierre Milon ("The Class"), make for an oddly tranquil
atmosphere interrupted by sudden surges of violence, recalling moments
from the director’s Marseilles-set thrillers "The Town Is Quiet" and
"Lady Jane."

Thesps are so many and so scattered that no performance is a standout,
though Leprince-Ringuet ("Love Songs") gives his character some
pizzazz.

Alexandre Desplat’s intrusive score, plus a good deal of additional
Bach and Mozart, winds up sucking the energy from certain pivotal
scenes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress