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.
WORK CITED 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.