Part 2 of my Francophilia fad involves Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, starring Alain Delon. And I have to say I was quite dumbstruck by the beauty and simplicity of the film. Its a noir crime thriller about an assassin with a code of honor, kind of like a samurai. He kills this dude but gets paid with a bullet instead of cash and then seeks revenge after he survives.

The opening scene plays like something WKW would have studied. Delon is lying on the bed, puffing smoke into the air in his tiny apartment. The camera then zooms out slightly and tilts upwards such that the shadows of the windows, projected onto the ceiling, are clearly visible and we notice a car zoom past.

Its all these little nudgy movements and careful framing that Melville uses to introduce a sense of solitude in the protagonist. Like another scene when he boards the train and a closeup shows people leaving and him entering right after, alone, in the opposite direction.

There’s also a lot of a sense of space. Staircases are framed closely. Characters move in and out of sight as they walk around the various buildings and structures that are really prominent. At some point I think I was reminded of Kurosawa’s Rashomon, probably when Delon is walking around somewhere. I suppose the title must mean there is some nod to Japanese film. Melville clearly knows how to use the architecture around him to drive across the mood of his film.

The colors are also so stark. Its a color film but it feels like a black and white, lots of greys and whites and black, cool blues, really washed out. There’s rain and concrete everywhere and you get this discharge of urbanity with every shot. Accompanied by a jazz heavy score, the film is beautiful both visually and aurally.

The pacing is also quite superb. I had my eyes pretty much glued to every single movement Delon made and all the little details the camera focuses on. Story wise, I found it to be a little bare but Delon’s parts were definitely well crafted. The ending left me hanging a little and wondering why, like I suppose it ought to.

Delon is amazing in the role. He wrote the book on how to wear a trench in my opinion. His Jeff Costello is intense but calm and collected. His manner and style cool and his delivery mechanical and precise. Overtly lacking in a certain emotion but then again, he’s a killer with no remorse and deftly intelligent to boot.

I ever I were to become an assassin, I think I’d take notes from this film again. Too cool.