After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.
Bourvil
- Le Commissaire Francois Mattei
- (as André Bourvil)
Gian Maria Volontè
- Vogel
- (as Gian-Maria Volonte)
François Périer
- Santi
- (as François Perier)
Anna Douking
- L'ancienne amie de Corey
- (as Ana Douking)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe heist sequence lasts for exactly 27 minutes and features no dialogue at all.
- GoofsWhen Mattei returns to his office after Le Receleur's son has overdosed, he pulls the door open. In the next cut from inside the office, Mattei is seen pushing the door open.
- Quotes
Le chef de la police: All men are guilty. They're born innocent, but it doesn't last.
- Crazy creditsThe movie's Opening Credits include an epigraph: "Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: 'When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle.'" This quote explains the title of the film.
- Alternate versionsAn alternate, 83-minute English-language version also exists, wherein most of the lead performers delivered their lines in (generally phonetic) English. This version was released to Korean home video under the title "Circle It In Red", although the actual onscreen title of the print reads "The Red Circle".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Sous le nom de Melville (2008)
Featured review
The Mother of all French thrillers by Melville the Master
Viewed at the Golden Apricot Film Festival, Yerevan, 2017. The peak film of the Yerevan week was without a doubt "Le Cercle Rouge", the 1970 all star gangland thriller by master of the genre, Jean-Pierre Melville. Not as well known as his younger Nouvelle Vague disciples, Truffaut and Godard, but a much better filmmaker, Melville specialized in deliberately paced psychological thrillers in which top French stars delivered some of their best performances. At the very beginning we are informed that the cryptic title, The Red Circle, comes from a fatalistic Buddhist capsule of wisdom which states that no matter what their divergent paths may be all men end up in the same Red Circle. The three men with the divergent paths here are (1) Corey, a cool gangster just released from prison and hoping to go straight (Alain Delon), (2j Vogel, a desperado killer on the lam, (Italian star Gian Maria Volonte) and (3) Jansen, a retired expert police marksman with a drinking problem and questionable morals (Yves Montand). They come together by fate to successfully pull off a tremendous midnight jewelry heist on Ritzy Place Vendôme in central Paris but will all end up in the fatal Red Circle due to a complex network of interlocking intrigues and betrayals. Bravado, integrity, and betrayal are recurrent themes in Melville films. Pulling them in to the fatal circle is another iconic French actor, Bourvil, as the wily cat loving detective relentlessly tracking the escaped Vogel all across France from Marseille to Paris, there callously exploiting his major informant contacts. (François Périer, another major French character actor). The long heist scene filmed in complete silence is spellbinding and a tribute of sorts to a similar scene in the Jules Dassin technically perfect crime thriller "Rififi" of 1955. Together with "Le Samouaï", another Melville masterpiece also starring Delon, Red Circle is an enduring twin peaks of French thriller cinema. Breathless entertainment all the way, and the work of a master craftsman at the top of his game. Cercle Rouge was part of a five film tribute to Maître Melville in the Armenian capital on the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
helpful•202
- alexdeleonfilm
- Jul 21, 2017
- How long is The Red Circle?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Le Cercle Rouge
- Filming locations
- Place du Panthéon, Paris 5, Paris, France(arrest of Santi's son)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $432,820
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $14,843
- Jan 12, 2003
- Gross worldwide
- $473,646
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content