Tragedy of Identity Loss During Wartime "Army of Shadows"

Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) takes the unique position of not glorifying the

French Résistance during the Nazis occupation of France during the Second World War. Director

Melville is depicting a personal verisimilitude about the occupation that counters popular

romanticized beliefs of the Résistance. The characters Phillippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) and

Mathilde (Simone Signoret) are portrayed as real people trying to maintain the survival of the

Résistance cell. The cinematic elements help accentuate the actors within specific scenes such as

the type of Gestapo interrogation, figures moving in and out of shadows within the prison tunnel,

and the historic landmark where German soldiers entered France. The visual impact of the Nazis

walking in front of the Arc de Triomphe denotes the ease in which Germany occupied France.

The importance of iconography marks a locations and the film's genre the director wants to

create to achieve a particular aesthetic look and mood. Jean-Pierre Melville incorporates low

lighting, specific shot compositions, and a muted color mise-en-scene to evoke the visual

emotion of fatalism. Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows is a personal statement about the

human instinct to survive during wartime is both a patriotic act and as an act of betrayal due to

the Nazis occupation stigmatizing collaboration as the tragic downfall of French unity.

“When fighting finally broke out, French military forces were defeated quickly by the

German aggressor. The armistice was signed on 25 June. Divided into occupied and

(euphemistically) non-occupied zones, France was controlled by the German occupiers in the

northern zone, and the collaborationist Vichy government, with the first World War veteran

Marechal Petain its putative head, in the south. In 1942, Germany occupied the entire country,

thus erasing the distinction between occupied and non-occupied zones" (Mayne, 5). The first

symbol within the film marking the location as Paris is the Arc de Triomphe. The

landmark was recognition of honor for those who fought for France. The image

of the Nazis marching into France without any resistance connotates a weakness in the French to

fight and insults the monument. The camera is stationary holding a Wide Shot of the Nazi army

gradually getting closer during this long take. The setting and the Nazi uniforms set the mood

within the scene.

“One highly unorthodox entry had been effected by the man who once claimed, with some

justification, to have invented the nouvelle vague: Jean Pierre Melville” (Williams, 331).

Melville's visual statement creates a dialogue. Melville was “deeply shaped by the experience of

surrender and the resistance” (McArthur, 190). “Melville's philosophical and political attitudes

seem to have become ‘frozen’ as a result of his experience of the outbreak of the Second World

War” (McArthur, 190). The division created during the Nazi occupation with French citizens

was about French collaboration. “Public sentiment was strongly in favor of dealing harshly with

accused collaborators” (Williams, 273). The French Resistance cell within the film was

dedicated to killing collaborators or rather traitors for any help given to the Germans. The French

cell's missions used murder for their own survival. The collaborators exchanged information

about the resistance to save their families or themselves. A valued friend that helps the Germans

becomes the enemy. Mathilde for example is shot for the crime of collaboration. She was a

valued resistance organizer, which was fatalistically trapped by circumstance. The objective of

the resistance for survival despite the costs reveals the dark truth that sacrifice may have no

reward in the end. This aspect of collaboration is at the heart of the film for Director Melville.

The atmosphere created through the muted colors and lighting contributes to the mood and

character psychology for their behavior. The use of low lighting to create shadows projects a

visual feeling of fear and tension. The prison tunnel scene shows naturism in its purest form. The

animal instinct of running away for survival. Naturalism tends to base action on desire, passion,

and survival. Gerbier mentally plans to stand still and not become sadist entertainment. Once the

bullets are at his feet, he instinctually chooses to run. Gerbier becomes crushed by his decision to

follow a survival instinct out of a revealed weakness. The setting is a long vacant tunnel with a

dirt floor. The men are lined up in front of the machine gun to run for their lives. The angle

changes from Close-ups to Medium Shots to gain insight to Gerbier's mental thoughts and to his

physical situation. The setting and Nazi uniforms create the mood. The tension is increased “in

relation to cinema by evolving what might be called a ‘cinema of process’, a cinema which went

some way to honouring the integrity of actions by allowing them to happen in a way significantly

closer to ‘real’ time” (Mc Arthur, 191). Melville is using French tradition of integrity of shot

must not be interfered with. It adds to the visual texture and the narrative tension being created in

the moment.

The interrogation rooms are different, but the same. A man tied to a chair in seemingly

gigantic empty rooms. The figure in the center is shown alone, but the corners of the room create

shadows that surround the figure signifying visually the isolation that has entrapped the person

within this confined space. The figure is show in Wide-Medium Shots to show the entrapment.

“The muted decor, the stillness and the (By the standards of Hollywood narrative cinema)

inordinate length of the scene combine to produce an overwhelming sense of solitude” (Mc

Arthur, 196). The style of the cinematography reflects the mood of the characters through the use

of light and shadow. The psychology of the characters bleak outlook is reflected in the way the

film drains out the color within the mise-en-scene.

Mathilde is an example of the difficult situation a French woman would find herself.

Mathilde developed another identity to protect the family responsibilities linked to her real name.

She was an example of a collaborator that had to be dealt with according to French standards.

Melville is constructing a story and cultural identity that is true to the characters living within a

Nazi occupied France. The characters in the film create a duality to their personal identities. The

characters have two sets of names that have different obligations and rules. The false name

allows the character to do whatever is necessary. There is no family or religious obligation to

restriction their behaviors. The false name allowed the characters to act out loyalties. The real

name has a family obligation. The issue of personal safety becomes betrayal. The “concern with

loyalty and betrayal” (Mc Arthur, 194) in wartime makes self-preservation conflicts with

nationalistic duty. It creates a moral confusion due to the circumstances created by the war. The

tragedy is the loss of identity. The characters can never go back to who they were before. Their

actions in accord with naturalism are instinctual, fatalistic, and noir like qualities in the violence

and aggression.

W O R K C I T E D

Mayne, Judith. Le Corbeau. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Mc Arthur, Colin. “Mise-en-scene Degree Zero: Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le

Samouri (1967).” French Film: Texts and Contexts 2nd Edition. Ed. Susan

Hayward and Ginette Vincendeau. London: Routledge, 2000. 189-201.

Print.

Williams, Allan. Republic of Images A History of French Filmmaking.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.