Renewal of Film Noi Director Jean-Pierre Melville was clearly heavily influenced by the black and white gangster movies Hollywood produced so abundantly in the 1940s and 1950s.But he developed this further, and Le cercle rouge is a prime example of this. Despite filming in colour he manages to maintain the almost draughtsmen-like quality of the picture which made films like The Big Combo so impressive to watch.Melville's pictures are also careful compositions. In Le Cercle rouge this becomes evident in central scenes of the film: Jansen's drug dream almost comes across as if it were a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, and the completely dialog-free jewel robbery defies all theories of limited attention spans by keeping us at the edge of our seats for a long time solely through pictures. Riveting stuff.