Francois Perier - Superintendent
Cathy Rosier - Valerie
Jean-Pierre Melville (Director)
This is one of my all time favorite films. I will keep my review brief instead of ranting on and on singing this films praises. Le Samourai is the quintessential hitman movie. Alain Delon plays Jef Costello with such poise and cool that I consider him to be the French Steve McQueen. The directive style is minimalism with expositions of action. Melville is my favorite French director (sorry Godard and Trauffaut).
In the French New wave there was this "Style = Substance" mentality. It worked for many of the films and helped to redefine the rules of cinema. While at times this theory sparked creativity and radicalism, at other times it fragmented any narrative to the point of banality and eventually boredom. What Melville did with his pictures was to take the principals of the FNW and apply them into his stories that were filled with plot and suspense. Melville used the rules of cinema and the concepts of to turn even mostly still moments into gut wrenching scenes. One demigod to the FNW was Alfred Hitchcock. He used his camera to create suspense. He didn't simply rely on the story. Melville learned this better than any other director of the time.
Le Samourai is about a hitman that completes a job then gets investigated by the police. When his employers find out about the legal complications they hire an assassin to kill off Costello. Another thing that makes this film so enjoyable is the believable detective work. Costello is super cool under pressure and doesn't get rattled no matter how bad things get. But the Superintendent is a worthy adversary. This is not a point that should be overlooked. I maintain that one major factor that makes a movie like this successful is that the viewer has to believe that the bad guy (or in this case the good guys) can bring down their opponent. Look at The Dark Knight. Batman is kind of a secondary character in that film. It is the Joker that made that movie a hit. Yes, Heath Ledgers performance is among the all time greats (in my not so humble opinion). But we as viewers get invested into that story because we actually believe that the Joker could get the best of Batman. Day of the Jackal is another great example of this. The Jackal is a deadly professional killer, but the police that are after him keep him sweating and on his toes.
One could call this movie a police procedural, and it certainly has elements of that type of film making, but I think that would be a backhanded compliment. The procedural aspects of the film (the line up and the chase though the subway) are among my favorite moments. Le Samourai subverts most simple genre outlines. This is mastery film making at it's finest. I give Le Samourai *****. Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself. This film is available through the Criterion Collection.
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