Incredible movie by a filmmaker who has stood the test of time...

My experience with Melville just keeps getting better and better. Aftre seeing Bob le Flambeur and this back-to-back I can now safely list Melville among my personal favorite directors of all time. He is a true auteur whose films all bear the unmistakable stamp of a personal vision.

I just love the detail with which he conveys action. Another of his films, Le Cercle Rouge, begins with a completely wordless escape sequence that last for nearly 20 minutes. It concludes with a half hour bank robbery sequence that also is completely silent.

Fans of films like The Score and Michael Mann's Thief (although all Mann's films are very Melvillian in style) owe it to themselves to explore the works of Jean-Pierre Melville. He deserves to stand with the finest crime filmmakers of all time...and the non-crime-related Army of Shadows is in many ways his masterpiece.

Melville may not have made as many films as Godard and Truffaut...but he is every bit their equal qualitatively.

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