Director: Jean-Pierre Melville.

Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Melville.

Starring: Alain Delon, Nathalie Delon, François Périer, Cathy Rosier, Jacques Leroy, Jean-Pierre Posier, Catherine Jourdan.

“There is no greater solitude than a samurai’s, unless it is that of a tiger in the jungle…perhaps…”

When a film is revered as a classic of world cinema by viewers and critics alike, it’s only so long before you have to check it out for yourself. In the case of Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samouraï”, I did just that, and I didn’t regret it for a minute. It’s entirely understandable why this policier features on many people’s lists of favourites.

Jef Costello (Alain Delon), is a hitman who lives alone and has very little human interaction or real relationships. It’s the code he lives by in order to remain professional. After completing his contract killing of a nightclub owner, Costello lets his guard down and is witnessed by one of the club’s singers. Before he knows it, he’s brought in by the police who suspect he’s guilty but don’t have the evidence to prove it. He’s released, but the police are on his trail and so are his employers who now see him as a liability.

As the film opens we linger on a shot of a small desolate room containing very little furniture yet includes a birdcage and a bed. The room looks empty until you notice a man lying on the bed smoking a cigarette and saying nothing. This opening shot alone, sets the tone for what is to come in Jean-Pierre Melville’s fastidious and incisive near masterpiece. Melville wastes no time on backstory or over explaining the plot. He also has an aversion to dialogue but a very high inclination on style and content. What dialogue there is, is short and to the point. Things are as they are, and that’s it. Although this might sound like there’s very little substance to be had here, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Despite, Melville’s minimalist approach, the film is awash with symbolism and a deep existential core. This is a director that paved the way for French New Wave cinema, but when you look at his work here, you realise he wasn’t as flashy as, say, Jean Luc Goddard or as disjunctive as Francois Truffaut. Melville opts more for restraint and meticulous detail. It’s here that he’s served perfectly in his leading man Alain Delon. Very rarely have I seen an actor do (and say) practically nothing yet remain so magnetic. Delon is absolutely superb and one of cinema’s quintessential and most compelling anti-hero’s.

Despite the obvious restraint from cast and crew, though, the film’s not without it’s moments of masterfully crafted tension. A exchange with the police as they try to identify Costello in a line-up is drawn out and quietly suspenseful and the same goes for a brilliantly constructed chase on the French metro – which has influenced such directors as William Friedkin in “The French Connection” or Brian De Palma in “Carlito’s Way”. But again, Melville and Delon never overplay it. The tension is purely built on a sense of realism and grows from their reservation and seemingly stoic approach. When you break “Le Samouraï” down a little, you’ll see the inspiration that it’s had on many films since; directors Jim Jarmusch and John Woo have openly declared the effect it had on them and their films “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai” and “The Killer”, respectively. Even Quentin Tarantino has claimed it to be his favourite gangster film.

It’s easy to see why this postmodern, art-house, thriller has appealed and influenced so many filmmakers, as Melville manages to seamlessly blend Western crime folklore with the traditions and warrior codes of the East. He gives it that classic noir look and feel that was so prevalent in the American movies of the 30’s and 40’s and his vision of Paris’ underworld (in desaturated colour) echoes that of American noir in his use of nightclubs, enigmatic jazz singers and dark streets and alleyways that reflect an almost war ravaged city.

Tarantino himself, is guilty of moulding a generation of crime loving cinema goers who expect gratuitous violence and have a propensity for fast talking mobsters. However, when you look back at the stylish and meditative work of Melville, you realise that in order to capture an audience’s attention, you don’t have to have Mexican standoff’s or be talking about Big Kahuna burgers or getting medieval on people’s asses with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch. Simplicity can work just as well.

Mark Walker

Trivia: According to Rui Nogueira (author of the book “Melville on Melville” published in 1976), the caged bird shown as Jef Costello’s pet in “Le Samourai” was the only casualty of the fire that destroyed Melville’s studio in 1967.