World War II · Film · 1969
Army of Shadows
L'Armée des ombres
The leader of a French Resistance cell escapes the Gestapo and returns to a clandestine war of betrayals, safe houses and impossible choices, where survival can require killing a friend.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Gestapo headquarters, Paris
Transferred from a Vichy internment camp, Gerbier waits to be interrogated in Paris and makes a desperate run for it.
Stop 2: Marseille
Gerbier's men deal with the young agent who betrayed him, in a silent scene that shows how dirty their war has become.
Stop 3: London
Taken out by submarine, Gerbier seeks support from Free French headquarters while the Big Boss is decorated by de Gaulle.
Stop 4: Lyon
Key location
Parachuted back into France, Gerbier finds Mathilde running his cell in Lyon and planning a daring attempt to free a tortured comrade.
What really happened
Melville, himself a veteran of the Resistance and the Free French forces, adapted Joseph Kessel's 1943 novel, written in London from the testimony of real résistants. The philosopher Luc Jardie echoes Jean Cavaillès, a logician who led a Resistance network and was shot by the Germans in 1944.
The film is set in 1942-1943, when the German occupation of the whole of France in November 1942 and the Gestapo's growing grip turned the Resistance into a war of cells, couriers and betrayals. Lyon became its capital, and there the Gestapo under Klaus Barbie arrested Jean Moulin, de Gaulle's envoy, in June 1943. Each character is fictional, but the methods and fates reflect the real movement.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- L'Armée des ombres
- Directed by
- Jean-Pierre Melville
- Countries
- France, Italy
- Languages
- French, German
- Released
- 1969
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Resistance
