Friday, June 3, 2016

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

This movie is notable for an extended heist scene that contains no dialogue. It is pure silence and intense caution for almost 30 minutes. It is highly choreographed and well executed. The movie opens with an epigraph, a quote by Buddha. Except the quote is made up. Perhaps it is to lead the audience to believe in the fate of the characters. Though I don't know it really worked. It might have just confused me as to why it was done. There are tons of symbolic red circles throughout the movie, like the red traffic lights. The most obvious one is the red circle at the top of the billiards cue. There is a great aerial shot of a billiards table. We watch player one take a shot and then another, which we believe to be the same player, but it is actually a new character. It is done in such a fluid movement. They play a version of billiards that I'd never seen before. It is really difficult. You hit the cue ball and try to knock it into two other balls. In some versions, you have to hit a certain number of walls before hitting the second ball. Playing off the walls is hard. The billiards table is symbolic for the director, (in an interview) who claims that all children learn at a young age not to climb on billiards tables. They are symbolic of adulthood, forbidden to young children. No one ever told me that, but sure.

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