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Le Samourai
(1967) - Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
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Polar / Neo-Noir / Crime
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"Nothing to say?"
(1967) - Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
--------------------------------------------
Polar / Neo-Noir / Crime
-------------------------------------------------
"Nothing to say?"
Le Samourai is one of the pure classics of 1960's French cinema, and believe it or not, it was pretty difficult to find. I started this movie right off the back of Rififi, a movie full of story development, utilizing all three kinds of pacing, and fleshing out the characters well enough to relate to. There's a decent chance it'll end up on my film noir ballot. So I already had a movie that came really close to my ideals of perfect cinema to compare this movie to. But considering that many websites seemed to favor this one, I was hoping that it would beat Rififi in every way.
Jef Costello is a pro hitman who's good at creating alibis. Unfortunately, someone spotted him during his last kill, and now the cops are tailing him, which is exactly why his previous contractor wants his dead. Now being hunted by everyone except his girlfriend, he's gotta be on his toes everywhere he goes.
The most important and even the most beloved factor of this movie seems to be its “cool” mood. This is a tale of an average assassin trying to avoid detection and the people he's connected with as well as the people he's trying to find. And this movie does an excellent job with it. Whatever scenes don't involve the cool, weird and jazzy music relies on this mood to help you relate to the lead character, as you kind of want to be in his “cooler than thou” shoes.
But PLEASE flesh out the characters more! If there's one thing I can't stand in a movie, it's underdeveloped and tropy characters. There's barely any imagination to them. So the point of this movie is to use slow-pace to tell as little story as possible without overdoing the slow-pace and cool mood? I'll be honest. I really do feel like I could've written this movie. And I'm not saying that because I agree that it's great cinema. I think YOU could write it, I think your teenage daughter could write it, I think it's just too simple for me to even compare to movies like Rififi. In fact, lemme mention a movie I put in the same league as Rififi: Army of Shadows, also directed by Melville. That's a movie with a cool mood AND constant plot development.
Thankfully, whatever scenes did have story handled it as realistically as possible, and with all of the proper dialogue as well. That's another strong point of the movie which keeps it from being out right boring, as much if the tension in these scenes relies on dialogue, if not also revealing how tropy these characters can be as well.
I'm glad I finally got this movie out of the way, but if I really had to compare it to another movie, I'll compare it to one that also fixates on slow-pacing to deliver moods, lacking story in comparison to other movies of its type, and one that's relatable through realism: Jeanne Dielman. I'm putting this movie slightly above Jeanne Dielman.
Jean-Pierre Melville's Directorial Score (3 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Army of Shadows: 98
The Silence of the Sea: 76
Le Samourai: 72
Score: 82 / 3
Jean-Pierre Melville is placed on my best directors list at #126 between Dominic Polcino and Don Siegel.
Jef Costello is a pro hitman who's good at creating alibis. Unfortunately, someone spotted him during his last kill, and now the cops are tailing him, which is exactly why his previous contractor wants his dead. Now being hunted by everyone except his girlfriend, he's gotta be on his toes everywhere he goes.
The most important and even the most beloved factor of this movie seems to be its “cool” mood. This is a tale of an average assassin trying to avoid detection and the people he's connected with as well as the people he's trying to find. And this movie does an excellent job with it. Whatever scenes don't involve the cool, weird and jazzy music relies on this mood to help you relate to the lead character, as you kind of want to be in his “cooler than thou” shoes.
But PLEASE flesh out the characters more! If there's one thing I can't stand in a movie, it's underdeveloped and tropy characters. There's barely any imagination to them. So the point of this movie is to use slow-pace to tell as little story as possible without overdoing the slow-pace and cool mood? I'll be honest. I really do feel like I could've written this movie. And I'm not saying that because I agree that it's great cinema. I think YOU could write it, I think your teenage daughter could write it, I think it's just too simple for me to even compare to movies like Rififi. In fact, lemme mention a movie I put in the same league as Rififi: Army of Shadows, also directed by Melville. That's a movie with a cool mood AND constant plot development.
Thankfully, whatever scenes did have story handled it as realistically as possible, and with all of the proper dialogue as well. That's another strong point of the movie which keeps it from being out right boring, as much if the tension in these scenes relies on dialogue, if not also revealing how tropy these characters can be as well.
I'm glad I finally got this movie out of the way, but if I really had to compare it to another movie, I'll compare it to one that also fixates on slow-pacing to deliver moods, lacking story in comparison to other movies of its type, and one that's relatable through realism: Jeanne Dielman. I'm putting this movie slightly above Jeanne Dielman.
Jean-Pierre Melville's Directorial Score (3 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Army of Shadows: 98
The Silence of the Sea: 76
Le Samourai: 72
Score: 82 / 3
Jean-Pierre Melville is placed on my best directors list at #126 between Dominic Polcino and Don Siegel.