Review of Le Samouraï (1967) by Art S — 16 Feb 2011

Watching this again (and again), especially after seeing many of Melville's other great films (Le Doulos, Le Deuxieme Souffle, Army in the Shadows, Bob Le Flambeur) suggests how different Le Samourai is, despite its surface similarities.

Here, we have a lone protagonist, very inscrutable, rather than the interconnected gang or family locked into the inevitable mechanics of the plot. Here, the final action comes with a big question mark over it -- perhaps his sense of honour leads him to save La Pianiste? But we never quite know whether she is complicit in all that has gone down.

To compare this to Bresson is not understating things (although it makes understatement prominent) -- the essence of cool, in detail, in colour, in theme.