Crime films are one of the longest running genres since…well…ever. From the silent films of the ‘20s and ‘30s, showcasing directors like Fritz Lang and his masterpiece M, to the ‘40s and ‘50s with the iconic stars of Golden Age Hollywood in film noirs that still intrigue audiences today, and right up to the films of Quentin Tarantino and Takeshi Kitano, they have been a staple of film culture. Arguably one of the most important directors in this genre is Jean-Pierre Melville, the French director whose films spanned just over 20 years and combined elements of Hollywood film noir with the French new wave. Le Samourai has been called Melville’s masterpiece, his opus, his most personal and profound film, and it is all of these things and more.
“There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai, unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle…perhaps.”
This Melville-invented quote from the The Bushido opens the film, as Jef Costello (played by Alain Delon) lays on his bed smoking a cigarette. The room is sparse, with only a few pieces of furniture, and a small birdcage in the centre. Jef Costello is a hitman in Paris, and lives a life parallel to that of the samurai - he has no friends, no lovers, and no possessions…just his work and his honor. And while the dialogue in the film is sparse - and of the dialogue that is there very little of it is spoken by Costello - the audience gets to feel for him, and feel like they really know him by the end of the film. He is, like many of the gumshoes of the ‘40s gangster films that Melville holds in such high esteem, an anti-hero. A good man who must do bad things to survive in a worse world.
When we first meet Costello, he is physically alone. But throughout the course of the film, as his employers double cross him and people on both sides of the law are after him, his situation becomes even more dreary and desperate. Armed with a six shooter and his wits, he travels the streets of Paris trying to solve the mystery of why he was double-crossed - and if necessary, get revenge - and also evade the police, led by a man simply addressed as “The Superintendant” (Francois Périer), a dedicated policeman whose sole ambition is to catch Costello.
The basic plot of Le Samourai is nothing new - a hitman does a job, things go awry, and now he needs to evade both the gangs and the police in the underworld of the city. But Melville’s film puts this plotline on the backburner and instead turns into a character driven mood piece, examining the depths of loneliness and the detrimental effects solitude can have on a person’s life. Alain Delon perfectly embodies the traits of Jef Costello - he looks cold and villainous, but at the same time has a hidden warmth and an innocence in his eyes that shows he is not doing something he likes. This is expressed more deeply when he goes to visit a prostitute named Jane (played by Alain Delon’s real-life wife at the time, Nathalie Delon) and doesn’t sleep with her, but only sits there in her room, paying her simply for her company.
Le Samourai is one of the most style-infused films ever made. Showing an elegant yet threatening side of Paris, the scenes are all crafted to add to the sense of isolation that Costello himself experiences every day. The musical score, composed by Francois de Roubaix, goes from sensual saxophones reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann’s work on Taxi Driver, to cold, almost jarring organs, and both types of music are used to convey the feelings of the scenes they are accompanying. Contributing even more to the sense of loneliness in the film is the colour scheme and the choice of locations. Jef Costello’s apartment is of very cool whites and pale greens, and looks as if it was once a rotting mess but has been meticulously cleaned and arranged to perfection. Then there is the police station - a maze of dark rooms, all interconnected through a series of awkwardly placed swinging doors and cluttered with desks and people.
The influence of Melville’s film can be seen throughout crime cinema - particularly in Asia. John Woo wrote quite a good essay about Melville (and more specifically Le Samourai) which is included in Criterion’s DVD release of the film. He talks about going to see Le Samourai in a theatre in Hong Kong when he was young, and was in such awe of it that he still attributes much of his style as a filmmaker to that film. Le Samourai has gotten so much praise for its masterful combination of style and storytelling that many reviewers have called it “the definition of cool”. It definitely is very cool, and is one of the greatest crime films ever made.
