How sad to see Mr Guédiguian pandering to the current craze for movies telling the sorry story of Jews in France under the Nazi occupation. Here Mr Guédiguian, who is an outstanding director having produced wonderful movies, like "Marius and Jeannette", tries to join Jews and partisans, including an iconic Armenian (like himself) character, for whom you cannot help feeling a lot of sympathy. However, there are so many strands in this movie that you never get solidly gripped by one of the many, and the plot disintegrates into a cascade of little streams. Also, the stereotypes of cardboard characters (the Paris ghetto Jewish tailor, the gallant Nazi soldier, the refugee Jewish woman and many others) contribute to make this movie essentially a flesh and blood graphic novel, re-visiting old clichés. There is nothing new here and good actors (like Virginie Ledoyen) do not manage to rescue a completely hopeless script. Not a movie I would recommend.
Review of Army of Crime
