"I watched this film at a small theater in Paris, with an audience of mostly French people in their sixties. In that environment, it actually managed to resensitize me to cinema violence, something I assumed was impossible. Hearing the gasps from the audience allowed me to see the film as intended. These poor old French people were being assaulted by the film. It was rocking their world! When the lights came up, I was both upset by the film and delighted by the expressions on the faces around me. We were all just looking at each other in silence. After that, I better understood the power of a collective cinema experience."

"The French really know how to do sex and bodies and affairs and palettes. I want every outfit in these films. This is a warm bath, a fragrant candle, a full glass of wine, and something deeply sensual at the base of your gut that is hard to name."

"The French really know how to do sex and bodies and affairs and palettes. I want every outfit in these films. This is a warm bath, a fragrant candle, a full glass of wine, and something deeply sensual at the base of your gut that is hard to name."

"I’m always drawn to misunderstood movies, ones that were either ahead of or behind their times. This Melville crime film about the French Resistance was both. It took thirty-seven years to open in America, and when it did, it received great acclaim. A surprise happy ending for a complicated and unsentimental movie."