MovieChat Forums > Le cercle rouge (1970) Discussion > Some questions regarding the ending (SPO...

Some questions regarding the ending (SPOILER obviously)


Le Cercle Rogue is one of my favorite movies, still there's questions which bugged me for years...

1. What meant Vogel about Corey not leaving inspector Mattei, if he knew who he was? What would he do instead? Try to kill him? Surrender himself? Beat him? Or what?


2. (This question is mainly for french speaking people, who saw the movie in French) Before Jansen, the character of Yves Montand dies, after being shot, he says something like: "Toujours aussi con la police?" ("Still so *beep* the police?") or "toujours assui bon la police?" ("Still so good the police?"). He's obviously cynical, but both sentences can make sense somehow... So what was he saying?

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1 - I think he simply means that if he just says run, he'll run - whereas if he says "this is a cop" or something, he'll delay, think about the situation, and possibly stay to fight it out with his friend or take some other course of action which is not running.

2 - according to the subtitles, he's alluding to the cops still being stupid - I assume because Mattei had no idea he was involved. It's kind of a "no *beep* Sherlock" moment I thought.


"Clothes are the enemy! Without clothes, there'd be no sickness. There'd be no war!"

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2. He is saying "toujours aussi con la police."

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[deleted]

The English subtitles have "So, stupid as ever on the force, huh?"

When I listen closely with headphones to the murmur he utters, I hear "Alors, [qu'lo] si con [à] la police, hein?" or "Alors, [qu'l] aussi con [à] la police, hein?".

The [à] is dubious, but certainly possible.

The [qu'lo] or [qu'l] sounds are of course not proper French, but they represent anyway the sounds Montand is uttering.

Notice the absence of any sound resembling the word 'toujours'. Is everyone really sure their version of the film has a 'toujours' sound??

Trying to make sense of this: We know that Jansen was a former policeman who had left the force for dubious reasons. So at least he himself had been 'con à la police' before. This time he managed to get shot by the police, so for him it is the second time 'con à la police'.

So isn't Jansens role a vital one in the development towards the end of the movie? Suddenly he doesn't want his share - yet joins Corey, unnecessarily, in an attempt to sell the loot. The police received an anonymous note about the names of the burglars, but I haven't noticed that tne identity of the sender is revealed. To me it seems that Jansen, in making up for his failures, was helping Mattei to find the crooks - and nevertheless manages to get shot in the end. Now that's really 'con'.

Michel Couzijn

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Six years later, I suggest the answer: He said: "Alors, aussi con qu'à la police?" : "So, (you're) as stupid as (when you were) in the force?" The bits between parentheses provide the words that are missing in the French version if the character were speaking in a more literary fashion. He is grammatically correct, except that he uses many ellipses as we all do in spoken language. My mother tongue is French and I just watched the movie ( a renewed pleasure every time I watch it).

Is it safe? What is safe? Is it safe? Yes, very safe? Is it safe? No, not at all! Is it safe? Aaahh!

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Thanks for clearing this up! Your answer did not go unnoticed :-)

Michel Couzijn
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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