L'armée du crime (Robert Guédiguian, 2009)

The Army of Crime centres on a Parisian resistance movement in 1943, composed almost entirely of émigrés with nothing much left to lose in combating the occupiers. As is usually the case with history-based works, the constant awareness of seeing what actually took place plays first fiddle and judgements on the end product as a piece of cinema can feel churlish. But it's too flat: reverential towards its subjects, containing nothing that leaps out to bring a well-worn theme to life, and whilst its good intentions with an obvious desire to avoid stereotyping are painstakingly declared, there's just too much adherence to completing the full martyr roll-call. Plus, Virginie Ledoyen is clearly only on board for her name, and remains one of the most hopelessly inept actresses of recent French film, conveying most emotions by screwing up her face a lot when, given the key role of the partisan leader Manouchian's wife, some nuancing would not have gone amiss.


5/10