LE CERCLE ROUGE (EL CÍRCULO ROJO) Guest Artistic Director

The thriller is an almost non-existent genre in Spain. In Europe, at least in the second half of the last century, the only country with a tradition in this genre was France, and its chief exponent was Jean-Pierre Melville, a director who had an enormous impact on contemporary directors throughout the world, from Tarantino to Kitano. He invented the silence and the solitude of the hired killer When Alain Delon ceased to be the maximum object of desire in European cinema (after THE LEOPARD, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, Rene Clement’s PLEIN SOLEIL – the first and best version of Patricia Highsmith’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY-THE SWIMMING POOL, etc), he reached the peak of his career with three masterpieces directed by Melville: LE SAMOURAI, UN FLIC and LE CERCLE ROUGE. I recommend all of them. LE CERCLE ROUGE is one of those rare, very personal films that achieve the miracle of entertaining all kinds of spectators. It relates in meticulous detail the drama of a robbery in an elegant Parisian jewelry store, but it brilliantly combines the action scenes with the descriptions of the men who commit the robbery and the policeman who pursues them. The depth and originality of the characters and the existential tone of the narrative make it a unique film in its genre . Its relationship with THE SKIN I LIVE IN is very tangential. I admire the sobriety of its mise·en·scene and the complete austerity of its actors. This was the reference I gave Antonio Banderas for his performance as the psychopath Dr. Robert Ledgard. An unscrupulous scientist and surgeon, capable of committing the greatest barbarities without showing the slightest emotion. A total lack of feelings To be able to play that, Antonio had to empty his face of any expression, like the characters in LE CERCLE ROUGE. Any excuse is good for recommending this French thriller, where the characters will end up, against their will, in that red circle that is fate.