I love the description of this film on the back of The Criterian Collection DVD: "In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contrast killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940's American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop-culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology—maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece
Le Samouraï defines cool."
Here are the questions to jumpstart the conversation:
- How is this film typical of the French New Wave? Of film noir? Provide very specific examples.
- What do you make of the title "The Samurai"?
- What do you make of the ending. Why did Jef do what he did? What was going on in his head?
- Overall, what did you like and dislike about the film? Why?
I love this movie, and Jef is an awesome assassin. I really like his whole style of methodical and well planned murders, though if he had been a little more carful during the first job we see he could have avoided all the trouble he went through. The ending is pretty neat, I think he was planning on going through with it but he must have known there wouldn't be a way out of it after, since he got up and showed everyone his face while walking up to her and decided that he would suicide by cop, since going to jail for what he's done would mean the end.
ReplyDeleteThe noire style is nice, everyone feels really shady, even the cops who are just trying to catch a killer. The way that Jef never really shows emotion, other than the end. His unmoving face while having a gun pointed at him, acting calm but really waiting for a chance to beat the blond guy up.
I think this was one of my more favorite films so far this year, time to go find my own dvd copy.
Yeah I also agree, Jef played such a badass 1960's assassin. It was great to see an assassin in that era, in that form, etc.
DeleteOne clarification: the actor's name is Alain Delon. The character's name is Jef.
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the film so much, Mike! I'll try to find another one like it to watch before the end of the term. I agree with your assessment of the ending.
Carlos Lopez
ReplyDeletethis movie was amazing and I realy thought he was going to get away and live somewhere else and lay low till the heat dies out and move back to his place.
now what could have made it better is when the cops are looking for him he can tell who it is cause the girl cops make them self's way to obvious.
now I will definitely watch this movie again and buy my own copy and show how good forghin movies are all about to my friends and family.
Yeah, those lady cops could have been a bit more conspicuous.
DeleteI freaking loved this movie!!!
ReplyDeleteoh by the way this is Tucker,
This movie was fascinating to me because I liked the idea of having a French detective and all the dark colors made it a better mood to keep the seriousness and plot. Even though the action was scarce, this movie was done very well and executed almost perfectly.
There was one thing I didn't like and that was that Jef died.I originally thought that he was gonna hook up with the pianist lady or his alibi, although that would have made this movie very typical and not as interesting to some people. I still wish he didn't die, he was awesome and carried around 85 keys.
This film was quite amazing and had really good directing and acting, (except for the couple of obvious girls on the train) I would highly recommend this movie to almost anyone.
I think I'll start carrying around 85 keys so I can be awesome too ;)
DeleteGreat observations about how the film's style contributed to its mood.
I don't quite know how to explain the French New Wave characteristics in this movie except to compare it to an older Film Noir film (one of the first) called The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon is an extremely drab, lengthy crime film. It's more on the boring side and there isn't something scandulous/new/fresh like therie is in Le Samourai. There seems to be more youth and an interesting (and confusing) love thing going on between the main character and the blond girl. (Can't even remember her name yet.), with a sexy kind of femme fatale pianist woman.
ReplyDeleteI think the title is sort of French New Wave too - it's very cool to see the undertone of the Japanese culture in this film noir, therefore the name seemed witty and fitting. I liked it, especially because there wasn't a 'samuari' mentioned at all throughout the film, there's just the hints of it throughout the film.
I actually am a little confused by the end, I don't understand why Jef was pointing an empty gun at her. I understand his death though, it seemed fitting. I feel like in a lot of darker crime films of any kind, the main character goes through all these risky obstacles to stay alive, then sacrifices/lets their guard done for a moment, and then dies. So meh.
I loved the film overall. There's nothing I don't particularly dislike, it didn't bug me in any ways and there's nothing I can be nit picky about. This was a much better film to watch compared to The Maltese Falcon so I feel I had a better experience overall. I loved how mysterious Jef was - he hardly talked, and when he did everything seemed legandary-quotable. So if Le Samourai had been made recently and most of today's generation had known about it, I could expect quoting to be used playfully haha.
I think that the ending was an example of Harakiri. Jef had gotten to a place where he knew he would inevitably go to jail and he knew that he was endangering a lot of other people by staying on the loose. A samurai would rather die than be a prisoner. So, he decided to choose to die an honorable death at the ends of his enemies.
DeleteWe should watch Le Samouraï again just to memorize the lines and quote them in class. That would be awesome.
i enjoyed this film, it wasnt one of my favorites, and did get pretty bored at times, but over all i liked it. i guess i dont really have much to say about it other then it was just an enjoyable film. haha
ReplyDeletewith the title it reminded me of all the samari movies we watched, by that one guys whos name i cant spell or say. haha. the way he killed himself, or we think he did, i think he did. it was a good ending.
the end was interesting, it made me kind of sad deep down, the main guy was always so serious and i guess to him him do something like that was like, oh what, he has emotions? haha, i am pretty damn sure he went to kill himself, his job was done, he felt like he had nothing else to live for, he got in to deep. he didnt want to be like that anymore, and there is only one way out.
Great thoughts about the motive for the suicide.
DeleteI haven't finished it yet but I wanted to point out something that really bugged me. The main character wore the most stand out-ish clothes. I think he would have wanted to be more bending in. He was the only one with a tan coat, and everyone else had dark ones on. I'm pretty sure they would have been able to pick him out by his coat since there were no others. And he didn't try to stop the woman from going into the room where he just killed that guy and he didn't try hiding or changing his clothes after when they were going around looking for suspects. I though he was going to grab one of his friends coats and go so he looked different. He's not very smart, at least in my opinion. AND not sneaky at all.
ReplyDeleteI can see the film noir aspect of it with murder and crime and the film is dark and the color is subdued.
But I still need to watch the rest of it.
Sir Whovian, Out!
I was thinking the same thing about Jef's choice of outfits.
Deletehey, sup
ReplyDeletei really liked what i saw of this movie, i didnt see the last half.
the story was really cool. i really liked that it defiantly portrayed the samurai values that he had.
i guess that the low contrast portrayed the film noir part of it. i really should see the rest of it...
-zak
The low color saturation is definitely film noir. Also, the moral gray-ness and crime drama aspects are also film noir. There really aren't any good guys in this story. That's film noir.
DeleteI'll give you partial credit for this but I need more to give you full credit.
This movie was amazing, i love american crime dramas. But THIS was planned out really well. The title fit the movie perfectly. Jef was a french samurai in everything he did. The way he talked, the way he killed, even the way he looked at people. He was just a badass and i love it.
ReplyDeleteThe ending made no sense to me when we watched it and it still doesn't. I don't understand why he would do something like that, questions are still running through my head: Did he want to die? What was going on between him and the pianist? what was her deal at the end? I'm still really curious to try and figure that out. I'm probably going to watch it someone when i can find it... but i've checked the two libraries closest to me and they don't have it.
I love this movie a lot mostly because i like the mysterious feel of the whole plot. It was the perfect crime drama. The actor that played Jef was really good, He could definitely pull off the handsome mysterious hit-man. The only thing i didn't like about the movie was the ending and how confusing it was.
I have ideas about the ending but I also still have questions and open to other interpretations. But I'm confident that the idea of Harakiri is at work here.
DeleteI actually never finished this movie, but from what I saw, I think that this movie could very much be classified as film noir. For one, everything's in black and white. The main character himself was a bad guy. His job was to assassinate people, but we're still supposed to cheer him on. He brought the film noir concept of the moral gray area.
ReplyDeleteI think the title "Le Samourai" is fitting. Jef was a very stoic character, He kept to himself, and only got involved as much as he needed to. I didn't see the end of the film, but I did read about what Jef did at the end. And to me that showed that he had a lot of honor and courage. He might as well have just been a samurai if they had existed in France in the '60s.
From what I saw, I liked this film. I only saw up to when he got betrayed by his employer, and after that I was wondering what was going to happen next. I'll have to remember to find this movie somewhere and finish it.
Yes, you definitely should finish it! It's a treat! A cool treat.
DeleteWhat a great analysis of the film you're written here! Good work.
ReplyDelete