Army of Crime - Grim tale of violent resistance in occupied France

Sombre, realistic and grimly faithful to the facts, French World War Two thriller Army of Crime (L'armée du crime) provides a very different view of wartime resistance in occupied France than either the counter-factual cheek of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds or the glossy romanticism of 2008’s Female Agents.

Director Robert Guédiguian’s movie tells the true story of the FTP-MOI (Francs Tireurs et Partisans de la Main d’Ouevre), the section of the French Resistance in Paris that was made up of foreigners. While the majority of the native population appear to have opted for a quiet life under the Nazi occupation, this band of communist immigrants, many of them Jewish, had more reason than most to fight back.

Guédiguian attempts to do justice to a long list of real people, and as a result his multi-stranded narrative requires considerable attention to follow. Amid the large cast of characters, however, the figures that especially stand out are Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian), who overcomes his pacifist scruples to become the group’s military leader, and hot-headed youngster Marcel Rayman (Robinson Stévenin), who dispatches a brace of German officers at close quarters with shocking cool after his Jewish family falls foul of the collaborationist authorities.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.