“There is no solitude greater than a samurai’s, unless perhaps it is that of a tiger in the jungle.” – Jean-Pierre Melville’s fictional Book of Bushido
There’s a special kind of cool that’s found in films about hit men. The ultimate of cinematic assassins study their craft to a point where the kill is automatic, and they always look great taking out their prey. If you look at most of these pictures though, they follow much the same formula. A hitman, shown earlier in the film as an expert in his craft, either gets spotted or refuses to kill for some reason.
In turn, one or two things always occur. Either the associates of the original target of the previous hit take revenge, or more likely the group who hired the killer decides to take the assassin out to cover their tracks. Also, often part of the formula is the involvement of the police in the scenario as well. In the end, a climactic showdown between the hitman and his pursuers takes place. Most of the time, there is even a small moment where a protégé emerges to carry on the hitman’s work.
Many great films have followed much of this formula with only a little variance. Leon, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, The Replacement Killers, and most importantly John Woo’s The Killer all have emerged as great examples of the genre. Even the comedy Grosse Pointe Blank starring John Cusack, shares many of these same elements in its story.
All of these can be linked back to one film. Much like Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is the starting point for all “Team up” films, this film is the Citizen Kane of this genre. The most influential Hitman film of all time is Jean-Pierre Melville’ Le Samourai.
Le Samourai Starring Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, and Jacques Leroy. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. .
I will admit upfront that French cinema is not my strong suit, nor is much of European cinema. I’m still not proficient in the works of Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Renoir, or even Fellini. I do love Francois Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, but am still more familiar with the work of Luc Besson and other modern French Action films such as Brotherhood of the Wolf than I am Breathless or The 400 Blows. The one French classic that stands out to me enough that I would seek it out was Le Samourai.
The movie features Alan Delon as Jef Costello, a loner hitman. This man is the very personification of the type of characters Chow Yun Fat and Clint Eastwood built their careers around. Jef speaks very little but is able to say much through his actions. From the very first shot of the film, Director Melville provides a type of window into Jef’s personality as he waits silently in his room for the phone to ring. During the picture’s opening credits, you can hardly even tell that Delon is even in the shot, as a puff of smoke seems to be the only giveaway that he is lying on his bed.
What Melville does here in Le Samourai’s early moments is establish his mood and style. Jef is cool, but does not necessarily live in a realistic environment. His apartment is completely empty except for his bed and his bird, as if to show he possesses nothing except necessities, much like a samurai would. This is a stark look that harkens more to a romanticized painting than an actual apartment. When John Woo basically remade Le Samourai with his own masterpiece, The Killer, he dropped this element from Melville’s film, but it was brought back in Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai whose title character played by Forest Whitaker had taken a vow of poverty as bushido would have him do.
Alan Delon is amazing as Jef. His expression is seemingly unmoving, even during the direst of circumstances. He gives away no indication of his guilt to the police or even the remotest bit of panic as he is being hunted down. He is ice cold throughout this entire film, yet wildly charismatic, making the viewer unable to take their eyes off of him. While again Woo imbued his version of the character (Jeffery, played by Chow Yun Fat) with much of the same cool, there was much more emotion put into the character. No other character from the genre has been able to keep their emotions so in check and yet seem to have all that fury right under the surface. With Woo’s fireworks, this would not befit the Hong Kong made picture, but here it totally works.
Delon’s performance is lifted immeasurably by Melville’s stylistic violence. Those expecting John Woo’s “balls to the wall nonstop .45’s” will be sorely disappointed. What is here is a more conservative approach, but also one that is able to build tension to an amazing degree. The term “slow burn” gets thrown around a lot, but here no other term would fit so well. Much like the work of Sergio Leone, Melville makes his audience wait for the violence to happen, but is much more low key. The two directors use some of the same tools, such as tight close-ups and strong, but silent main characters, but the operatic feel of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or Once Upon a Time in the West is substituted by a somber, conservative tone, but a no less fascinating experience.
This is maybe the most accessible art film ever put out by the French. The dialogue is very subdued and to the point. Melville keeps the film afloat with wonderful images that capture the story perfectly without a line of dialogue spoken. Each frame of the movie is so well composed it could be a photograph in and of itself. We know exactly what Jef is doing whether he says a word or not. In fact, the film would still work even if it was a silent film. Everything from the beautiful swinging sixties set and production design to the costumes fill out this world to make the cinematography of Le Samourai into a unique experience.
Take for instance the first kill of the film. Jef has just stolen a car, using a ring that ostensibly has hundreds of keys on it. He goes a to garage where a man in a sweater changes out the license plate on the car. He drives to a nightclub where a beautiful girl plays the piano. Jef lets himself into the back of the nightclub where he enters a door. He tells the man he is going to shoot him, but that it is not personal. The camera flashes on their faces, then the gun as it fires. Jef then comes face to face with the girl again as he leaves the room. He stares at her a moment, then calmly walks out of the nightclub where his elaborate alibi goes into effect. The sequence is breathtaking, but contains maybe 15 seconds of dialogue.
The director is helped very much by the film’s score. The music produced by François de Roubaix for this picture is absolutely hypnotic, and is able to give you the queues you need for the film instead of awaiting dialogue. This was one of the major areas that Woo was able to tap into to recreate mood of this movie for The Killer. That film’s score by Lowell Lo is a major tool that Woo uses to give his world of ultra violence a soul to go along with the bloodshed.
The supporting performances are as good here as anything else the film has to offer. Jane Lagrange, played by Delon’s real wife Nathalie, is seemingly given free range to emote, considering her husband is not able to do so at all. Her character is wonderfully sexy, secretly caring for Jef even though he seems to be using her.
The chief antagonist for Jef in the film is François Périer’s Superintendant. Believing Jef to be the killer of the nightclub owner, no matter what alibi Costello has, he is completely unrelenting in his pursuit. Once again, this character gets to run a gambit of emotions as he seems warm in many scenes while in others he is cold and conniving, trying to coerce answers about Jef from witnesses and Jane.
Most interesting of all the side characters is Cathy Rosier as the piano player, Valerie. She is the only one to see Jef face to face, yet does not turn him in at the Police line-up. This mystery as to why is heightened by her very aloof performance. Valerie keeps Jef guessing as to why she did not turn him in, and figuring out her intentions is crucial to the film’s outcome.
The Police investigation is incentive for the businessmen that hired Jef to try to eradicate him before he is caught by the police. The final 40 minutes of the film is an amazing cat and mouse game, as Jef tries to take revenge on his employers while also trying to avoid the net set out by the authorities. The violence is kept low, but the suspense of the film reaches a fever pitch.
Le Samourai is one of the most amazing and influential films ever produced, but due to the language barrier and its scarce availability many will not have seen it. Le Samourai is perhaps one of the best French films ever produced and is worth seeking out. In his commentary for The Killer John Woo called Le Samourai a perfect film and his favorite film of all time. His enthusiasm is not unwarranted.
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