jean pierre melville le cercle rouge follow the life of two criminal represent vogel ( gian maria volontè ) and a murderer who give the cop the slip while he be transfer from one city to another by train while and corey ( allain delon ) and a thief just release from jail . fate decides to join these two men to pull off a spectacular heist . in the background there be matei ( andré bourvil ) and the detective vogel escape from and implacable in his pursuit and sometimes ruthless in his method . along the movie the viewer meet other minor but fascinating character and the best of which be jansen ( yves montand ) and a disgraced ex cop and an excellent marksman . melville have such a unique style one doesn not need to watch many of his movie to catch on . le samourai and un flic and le cercle rouge be clearly make of the same cloth represent the symmetrical angle while the long shot while the silence while the coat and hat and cigar while the quote at the begin while the amazing heist and the fatalism while the unglamorous and inglorious criminal life . everything that great in melville be present here in top form . and his shortcoming do not bother me so much this time represent the illogical and perplexing behavior of his character and confuse storytelling and which hurt my enjoyment of his other movie and be almost invisible here . since le cercle rouge precede un flic that doesn not mean he get well with time while perhaps i be just get more used to it and reach a mindset where it doesn not bother me anymore . melville make unique crime movie . as old a they may be and they show more ingenuity and realism and grace than the modern techno thriller in which cool thief use computer system and james bond esquire gadget to pull off impossible crime . melville criminal aren not cool represent theyre lonely and socially awkward and probably aware theyre not good for much more than planning heist . theyre society unwanted and living in the night and always one step ahead of the police in a game they know they will lose eventually . there nothing romantic about them . amazingly for a movie of this type and the cop aren not complete idiot either . matei be smart and crafty and patient and even compassionate . he not an unlikeable villain or a cliché and he just an old man do his job and do it right . he know when to use force and when to use brain . many movie could learn from him . it this down to earth and unromantic style that make melville movie such a joy to watch and put him on a special pedestal a one of cinema great crime master .