-By David Noh

For movie details, please click here.

Robert Guédiguian’s The Army of Crime traces the beginnings of the French Resistance movement during World War II, focusing on the true story of Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian), an Armenian poet, and his wife Mélinée (Virginie Ledoyen), who led their ragtag but effective number, consisting of non-French Jews, Communists, anti-Fascist Italians and others. Also involved is Marcel Rayman (Robinson Stévenin), a Polish Jew, who proves a ruthless Nazi killer.

Guédiguian has fashioned an impressive historical recreation that is near-epic in its scope. What is most striking is the utter humanity of the protagonists. These are not the sanctified paragons of, say, the propaganda films Warner Bros. put out during the war, but embattled, complex personalities often at war with one another. Guédiguian’s use of hectoring pro-Nazi radio propaganda messages throughout the film (by real-life, notorious collaborator Philippe Henriot) give a true sense of the climate of oppression and fear during the Occupation, continually, fatefully, driving the characters. Guédiguian also conveys the ironic sense of normal life going on during the Occupation, with summer swim competitions providing a bland cover for the subversive activity, and the ever-uneasy rapport between German invaders and French citizens. The Armenian flavor the director provides in Manouchian’s family scenes brings added color and sheds new light on the impact of the Occupation on foreign residents of France at the time. You are inexorably drawn into the story, which becomes ever more exciting, as well as ultimately tragic.

The performances are uniformly good, especially Abkarian, who avoids saintliness and quietly imbues Manouchian with an impressive ambivalence, and Ledoyen, who, stripped of all gamine glamour, conveys a surprisingly steely spine. The film is glowingly marked by the presence of several strikingly strong women who contributed mightily to the guts and glory of the time.