dir. by Jean-Pierre Melville
Viewed on 2007-02-24
Rating: 8.5
A seriously good gangster movie in which the main character, Jef Costello, is a hit-man trying to evade police suspicion and his own bosses after killing a night club owner his bosses paid him to off. Despite the title, it bears little resemblance to a samurai film, apart from the the very few gunshot sequences which are lightning-quick like some samurai fight scenes where you barely see the flash of a blade just before someone keels over, mortally wounded. The set-up is more of a neo-noir thriller. The title really refers to Jef's life of solitude and the way he seems to adhere to a certain code of honor in his job as assassin. "There is no solitude greater than a samurai's, unless it is that of a tiger in the jungle... perhaps," says a quotation at the beginning of the film. To discuss more of the plot here would be to give away too much. Suffice it to say, I especially loved the opening scene of Jef stealing a car--paralleled near the film's end--the ending itself, and a scene where Jef tries to elude his police tails on the Paris Metro. For a movie with almost no dialog, the acting and directing really have to carry it, and they do.
This was the first film by Jean-Pierre Melville I've seen. Honestly (shamefully?), I had never heard of him before watching Le Samouraï. Now I have a lot to look forward to: it turns out he made other movies!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment