Books by Jean-Pierre Melville
L’Armée des Ombres (Army of Shadows)
by Jean-Pierre Melville
Melville is one of the great directors of our time. The film captures what a difficult, extremely dangerous and often hand-to-mouth thing the Resistance was – how survival was a matter of chance often. It’s a real-life Resistance film. He doesn’t glamorise it, he doesn’t downplay heroism, but it’s heroism on a human scale. It was one of the first movies where you can really feel and empathise with the main characters – it’s brilliantly acted. It also shows up the loyalties and the disloyalties and all the uncertain currents that were around in France, who could you trust, who couldn’t you trust, and so on.
Interviews where books by Jean-Pierre Melville were recommended
The best books on The French Resistance, recommended by Jonathan Fenby
The historian and author chooses five books on de Gaulle and the Resistance. He says the British tried to veto de Gaulle’s famous 1940 speech from London calling on the French to stand up to German occupation
