The Army of Crime
| The Army of Crime | |
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2009 poster advertising the French release
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| Directed by | Robert Guédiguian |
| Produced by | Dominique Barneaud |
| Written by | Robert Guédiguian Serge Le Péron Gilles Taurand |
| Starring |
Virginie Ledoyen Simon Abkarian |
| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
| Cinematography | Pierre Milon |
| Edited by | Bernard Sasia |
| Distributed by | StudioCanal |
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Release date
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Running time
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139 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $9.2 million |
| Box office | $4.4 million |
The Army of Crime (French: L'Armée du crime) is a 2009 French drama-war film directed by Robert Guédiguian and based on a story by Serge Le Péron, one of three credited for the screenplay. It received a wide release in France on 16 September 2009 and opened in the United States in 2010. The film deals with the events of the Affiche Rouge ("red poster") affair. The title was taken from the caption on a propaganda poster, in which the Nazis sought to present prominent French Resistance fighters as foreign criminals; the caption read "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime".
In Paris during the German occupation, an ill-assorted group of resistance fighters commits disorganized attacks. Missak Manouchian, an Armenian exile, is ready to help but is reluctant to kill; for him, being ready to die but not to kill is an ethical matter. However, circumstances lead him to abandon his reluctance. Under his leadership, the group structures and plans its actions and thus the Manouchian network is born. The film traces the story of this group, from its shaping to the arrest and execution of its members in 1944.
Opening in 250 screens, The Army of Crime debuted at number 7 at the French box office, making it the second highest grossing new release of that week following District 9, which debuted at the number one spot with almost twice as many screens. The film grossed over 772,000 Euros in its first five days of release and attracted 349,940 viewers to French theatres.
It was screened out of competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2009. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 90% based on 30 reviews and an average rating of 6.8/10. At Metacritic, the film has a score of 76 out of 100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
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Wikipedia