With the avowed love from filmmakers like Johnnie To, John Woo, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, the work of Jean-Pierre Melville went from being curiosities to masterpieces. But such is what happens when a great artist’s works are rarely shown or released stateside. It wasn’t until around 1997 that Le Samouraï was re-appraised with a theatrical re-release. Since then a number of his films have been reissued. Because his masterwork 1969’s Army of Shadows was never officially released stateside, when it received reissue in 2006, the 37-year-old picture was named by many critics as the best film of the year. Ironically the film was mostly panned in France when it was released. Now it’s assessed to be one of the finest achievements in French cinema. Sands of time. Lino Ventura, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret play members of the French resistance in this classic, and our review of Army of Shadows follows after the jump.