The first is the fatalistic theme of this film. In the title of Red Circle, an allusion of Siddhartha Gautama (the real name of Sakyamuni, the ancestor of Buddhism) is directly quoted: Siddhartha once drew a red circle with carnelian, and said: "Although people don't know it at first, they will meet one day. Even if their life experiences are different and their paths are different, they will eventually meet in the blood circle (red circle) on a certain day. " This allusion at the beginning of the film is extremely important for understanding the whole film. When talking about the red circle, director Melville said: "The blood circle is the mark of the devil, which draws the fate of some people and isolates them from ordinary human society." What he wants to express is obvious: one can't escape fate after all. It may be alive or dead.
Melville often idealizes some people and stories that wander on the edge of society and are incompatible with or even antagonistic to the social system, and expresses them through his works. We can see his pursuit of perfection in the red circle. "Red Circle" fights to the death between the police and robbers by releasing the prisoner thief Collet (played by Allen Delong), the former police sharpshooter Jean Sen (played by Yves Montande), the fugitive vogel (played by Rion-Maria Volante) who escaped from the old police chief Mattei (played by Bourvil) and the story line of robbing jewels together, which is not uncommon in police films. The film further metaphorically sublimates the above theme to the social philosophy level and height of the special group wandering on the edge of society and legal system facing the powerful ruling power. The tragic ending of the three men finally meeting in a pool of blood also echoes the allusion of Sakyamuni, the Buddha who opened the light, and reflects the helpless tragic fate and inescapable fate of those who opposed the system under the suppression and encirclement of powerful forces.
The Red Circle is most praised for its calm style, extremely concise dialogue and rich Jean-Pierre? Melville's personal characteristics and unique style. This can be analyzed by the most representative, classic and well-known scene of "robbing a jewelry store at night" in the film. The whole scene includes: 16 section "Action begins, enter the house" (length 14: 18) and 17 section "Jewelry robbery" (length 12:29).
Although there is almost no dialogue in the nearly half-hour play, Melville presents this scene to the audience through the perfect combination of images and sound effects. His excellent photography skills, cool lens images, unexpected plot arrangements, excellent and skillful lens scheduling, and smooth editing between complex and changeable scenes made the whole scene very impressive. At the same time, it also uses the combination of ambient sound and special sound effects, as well as simple notes. The excellent use of these sound montages adds endless tension to the film, making the whole scene full of dramatic strength and tension, which is extremely wonderful and the audience is all nervous and holding their breath. The whole drama is a model to show the artistic conception of "silence is better than sound", and it is also the most enjoyable, classic and famous movie fragment. Its unique film skills are amazing, and it can be called a film demonstration textbook.
In addition, in the scene where the sharpshooter Jean Sen first appeared in this film, Melville made the finishing point by surrealism, and made clear the tragic situation and inner helplessness of Jean Sen, which is also a wonderful pen in the film.