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Actor Milla Jovovich saw her breakthrough role in 1997, when she played Leeloo in The Fifth Element. Jovovich had taken on supporting roles in movies such as Chaplin and Dazed and Confused, but her bigger role in The Fifth Element made Hollywood aware of who she was. The sci-fi movie was also significant in her life in that it brought together her and director Luc Besson. Besson and Jovovich entered a relationship and married in 1997.

However, Jovovich and Besson's romantic bond was not long for this world. While the pair would go on to make another movie together, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, in 1999, their marriage ended up falling apart. Besson and Jovovich got divorced in 1999, after only two years of marriage. Now, the actor has been married to director Paul W.S. Anderson, who she also met on a set, since 2009. But reflecting on her divorce, Jovovich recalls...

Jean-Pierre Melville’s most accomplished, most personal movie gets a new reissue. Ignored in 1969 and released in the United States only 37 years later, this somber, ultra-realistic look at the French resistance has never been equalled. Forget thrilling adventure tales with daring escapes, patriotic oaths and beautiful spies; Melville presents resistance activities in the Occupied territory as a fearful grind leading in one direction only. Criterion’s extras include an interview piece with historical operatives, who still argue points of strategy.

Army of Shadows

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 385

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 145 min. / L’Armée des ombres / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 7, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet, Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani, André Dewavrin.

Cinematography: Pierre Lhomme, Walter Wottitz

Film Editor: Françoise Bonnot

Original Music: Eric De Marsan

Written by Jean-Pierre Melville from the novel by Joseph Kessel

Produced by Jacques Dorfmann

Directed...

Many might find L'armée des ombres extremely boring. In fact, for a film about the French resistance against Nazi occupation during WWII (1939-1945), the film pratically doesn't have any action scenes. However, if you're patient enough, you'll appreciate L'armée des ombres (which is adapted from a novel of Joseph Kessel) that explores the bottom of the leading protagonists' heart.

Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura), an engineer and a suspected resistant, is put behind bars by the French police. Afterwards, he's handed to the Gestapo's headquarters in Paris because he knows a lot of things. Philippe manages to escape and flee to Marseille in order to meet with fellow resistants. Moreover, he'll eliminate the traitor who caused his imprisonment. However, the Gestapo will try to not only arrest Philippe, but also his companions.

Let's be honest: the pace of Jean-Pierre Melville's film is really slow from the beginning to the end.