Wow! A Noir that is French, that is in color, and that is about a guy who fancies himself a samurai? Sign me up!This French movie, made in the late '60s, intentionally wants to be a Film Noir. Do you feel like it does a good job? Does it contain the elements of the Noir genre? Which elements? What elements does it leave out, if any?
How does it compare to super legit American made Noir, like, say, Sunset Blvd? What about the way the dialogue is written in each of these two films? Differences? Similarities?
Did you like this movie? Why, or why not? And, do you feel like Le Samouraï is a good title for this film? Why or why not?
And, is it just me, or does anybody else think Jef Costello kind of looks like Joseph Gordon Levitt? I mean, if his hair was longer and all over his face and stuff? ... anybody?... anybody?
There's something to be said about this film's complete lack of excess.
ReplyDeleteIt's dialogue is so extremely sparse that it could very well function as a silent film. It's plot is straight, it hasn't been cut with unnecessary frills, flourishes, and decoration; it's honest and unflinching nature directly reflecting the personality and portrayal of Jef Costello himself.
This film might be my favorite noir we've seen in class thus far. I absolutely love the isolation, Costello's cold blue eyes as he further separates himself from the world. There were so many visual elements I enjoyed, from the dreary grey blues and smokey desaturated colors of Paris and sharp, rigid lines of his universe reflected his lifestyle and his lonely view of the world.
From the first ten minutes of silence to very poignant caged bird metaphor, this film succeeds on many levels. The most relevant of which being its success as a noir. Though it lacks some elements of classic noir films (such as the complete questionability of the characters or red herrings and contrived plots) it continues without them effortlessly because of aforementioned lack of needless decoration. This film is as black and intriguing and even mournful as a film could be, with unyielding and solitary beauty.
That is so weird when I first saw Jef, I thought of the character from the old "Hawaii 5-0" Steve McGarrett played by Jack Lord.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that the filmmaker wanted to change the ideas of Noirs being black and white to colored. It brings that classic late 1960's- 1970's look of bleached out colors.I love the idea that people don't know what the movie is and look at the cover, they're most likely expecting black and white when suddenly the movie is in color. I wonder if this was done on purpose or just to look cool.
One problem I had with the movie is when they had the line-up to see who did the crime. There is no way that the police would ever let the suspects see witnesses, but who knows maybe that was common back in the 60's but would never pass in todays standards.
I believe they did a suspect lineup back. If you've ever seen those shows where they ask the witness or victim which one did the crime.
DeleteLine ups are a real thing, in fact they are still in use today, much in the way of The Usual Suspects. Usually there is a one way mirror separating the witnesses from the suspect to keep the witnesses safe. I don't think that they are still admissible in court, because the fallibility of human memory.
DeleteExactly thats what I mean, it would only be done in one-way mirror. But allowing the witness meeting the suspect would never work like it did in this movie. It's not a big court decision but if you have five people saying he/she was there at that moment, then... It's at least looked into.
DeleteDo keep in mind that this movie takes place in 1960's France and things may have been different there / then. I don't know that they were though. Anyone want to research this?
DeleteFirst things first, Alain Delon is SUPER dreamy.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, this is probably my favorite noir that we've watched in class. I think I enjoyed it more because it was in color. I found it easier to watch even though it was in french.
The plot was definitely a film noir plot! I personally think it had every quality of a film noir minus the part of it being in color.
I have to completely agree with Sydnie. My absolute favorite thing they did was how silent and closed off Jeff Costello was. In most film noirs you find out things about the detective, you figure out what kind of person they are and what their motives are for doing what they're doing through the ways they react to the events they interact with. Or they tell you a tragic back story they had with some hot dame or something. However with with Jeff Costello, they give him barely any dialog, he's closed off, he has those icy dead eyes that make it almost impossible to read him. You barely know anything about the very character you're following through the story.
ReplyDeleteIm definitely NOT a fan of foreign movies at all. If its not in English, i really hate watching it. But this one wasnt that bad, i liked the feel of the characters and the woman i dont know why. But i was only able to watch half the movie so i enjoyed what i watched !
ReplyDeleteI love this movie. The main character is smart, but not stupidly smart like most movie geniuses. It was clear that he loved the piano player in the end when he needed to kill her. He made it seem like he was going to but then when he pulled the trigger he was shot. Afterwards the detective looked in his gun and found that there were no bullets! He knew what he was doing. He didn't want to kill her. He knew that he was going to die. I also really loved the key chain. He has a little wire thing with keys that start anything! What is weird though is that it's always the fourth key. Just some thoughts. (Carlos)
ReplyDeletei liked it. it was really good for a foreign film which are something im not normally a fan of. i've only liked one which was battle royal. i thought it was very quiet and a little boiring but i definitely liked it.
ReplyDeleteWatch My Way and Downfall. Those are 2 very good foreign films.
Deleteit wasn't really about them, but blast of silence was a film noir to me and it was about an assassin to who gets killed in the end as while. it also it was very dark and was based in the city. so I DONT KNOW IM CONFUSED!!!! haha I cant place this movie.
ReplyDeleteI like the movie and I loved jef. I loved when he got the orders to kill the girl but when he went there he gun wasn't loaded. I almost cried at end haha.
yeah you got a point will they kinda do hahah that funny.
One thing to keep in mind as we consider this film: it is a French New Wave movie. The French New Wave filmmakers of the 1960's spent a lot of time studying American movies of the previous decades. They worshipped Hollywood cinema. They understood Hollywood genres really well. Then, after writing about American movies for a bit, they got their hands on film equipment and started making their own films. They were young French guys with kind of weird senses of humor so they took the old Hollywood genres and did kind of weird but awesome things with them. I imagine that they also watched some of the greats from other countries as well such as the great samurai films Akira Kurosawa was making at the time in Japan.
ReplyDeleteSo, I am confident that Melville (the director of Le Samourai) was being influenced by a sense of worship/love of several different movie trends: film noir, samurai films, and 60's pop culture. He was also heavily influenced by the French New Wave culture in which he lived.
I think this film was really good at the beginning but toward the end it kinda lost my interest and some points i couldnt read fast enough so i could not really understand what was going on. I also forgot my glasses.... I think this movie would be good if they remade it and put it in english.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the fact that the movie was in French. It gave a certain twist to the film noir genre. And it was interesting for the French to study the American films like how we study Foreign films.
DeleteThank you for being honest, Dallas. I really appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteSomething to think about for rhetorical sake: imagine you made a great movie. Then the movie was released in Mexico. And people there said, "It might be good if they remade it in Spanish?"
In the last 100 years, a lot of amazing movies have been made in other countries. If one can learn how to adapt and appreciate them even though they are in another language, then one can have some pretty amazing experiences with some pretty amazing movies.
I loved this movie. The French was actually very refreshing. The French studied the American film noir like how where studying the film noir genre and making our own. I really like how he was so far into his usall routine like the samurai was. He knew when something was wrong just from his birds anxiety. I guess the bird was so use to only seeing him, he got anxiety from seeing anyone else. I enjoyed this movie
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