Christian Barbier

On a train from Paris to Antwerp, a director and his team hash out the plot to a crime movie as it's enacted by a drug smuggler and a seductress.

Long underappreciated and unseen, this tragic masterpiece—Jean-Pierre Melville’s most personal film, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel—recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the French Resistance. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret star as intrepid underground fighters in an unsparing tale of defiance in the face of insurmountable odds.

Two titans of French Cinema are brought together for this crime drama set in the snow-covered French countryside on the border with Switzerland. The body of a young woman is found savagely murdered near the isolated Burned Barns farm run by Rose (Oscar-winner Simone Signoret) and her family. The police work begins and the investigating judge, Pierre Larcher (Alain Delon), soon comes to suspect Rose’s family, and in particular her sons, may have played a role. Signoret and Delon are outstanding as two forces playing a game of wits with profound consequences. Featuring a stunning soundtrack by electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.