Le Samouraï
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| Le Samouraï | |
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| Directed by | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| Produced by | Raymond Borderie Eugène Lépicier |
| Written by | Joan McLeod novel The Ronin (uncredited) Jean-Pierre Melville Georges Pellegrin |
| Starring | Alain Delon François Périer |
| Cinematography | Henri Decaë |
| Release date(s) | October 25, 1967 U.S. release |
| Running time | 105 min |
| Language | French |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Le Samouraï (English title The Samurai) is a French crime/drama/thriller directed by French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville in 1967. The film's protagonist Jef Costello is played by Alain Delon.
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[edit] Plot
The story follows a perfectionist free-agent hitman, Costello, who religiously adheres to a strict code of duty. He lives in a Spartan apartment whose interior contains a neatly arranged line of mineral water bottles, cigarettes on a bookcase, as well as a little bird in a grey cage in the middle of the room. He is taciturn and goes about his tasks like clockwork. The film opens with a fairly long take of the protagonist lying await on his bed, smoking, during when the following text appears on-screen, attributed to an ancient samurai writing entitled The Book of Bushido:
There is no solitude greater than the samurai's, unless perhaps it be that of a tiger in the jungle.
Costello has no criminal record due to his methodical way of working, which includes constructing elaborate alibis with his girlfriend Jane (played by Nathalie Delon). He is hired to kill Martey, a nightclub owner. Despite his meticulous attention to detail, Costello leaves the scene of the crime with several people seeing him, including the club's beautiful piano player Valérie (Caty Rosier). Although the police Superintendent François Périer believes Costello is the killer, the evidence against him is insufficient. Costello soon finds himself in a difficult position, being pursued by both the police, and his employers who now see him as a detriment. He also begins to fall for Valérie who intentionally did not give him away in a police line-up of suspects. The reason Le Samouraï is regarded as one of the best and most influential thrillers is the film direction. Melville creates this film as a spotless Neo-noir. Every scene appears to be well-planned and well-paced. The film's fame also comes from the fact that for a crime thriller only three or so scenes contain gunfire. However, Melville ably sustains the suspense throughout the film, supported by a haunting jazzy score and an excellent performance from Alain Delon as the glacial Costello. Although the plot is fairly simple, the film's finale sparked endless discussion on its depth and meaning.
After being released from the police line-up, Costello loses a police tail and gets to a meeting point on a subway overpass. He walks up to a man who is one of his employers. Instead of paying Costello, the man shoots him in the arm and runs away. Costello returns home to take care of his wound before falling asleep. When he wakes up the same evening, he returns to the nightclub, prompting the barkeeper Robert Favart to confront him, saying, "If you were the man the police are looking for, one could say that the murderer always returns to the scene of the crime." Costello soon meets the piano player and they develop a slight relationship. In the meantime, men from the police department bug his room. Upon returning, Costello noticed that his bird behaved strangely. Suspecting that his room had been intruded, Costello searches his room for the bug, finds it, and turns it off.
Following a chase scene at the Métro, Costello soon he realizes that he is in a position in which he cannot win. He is held at gunpoint in his room by the man who shot him before, only this time to give him money and offer him a new job. Costello thinks it's a trap. He overpowers the man and ties him up, extracting information about the man's boss (the one who had wanted to hire Costello for the new job) in the process. The boss is a man by the name of Olivier Rey Jean-Pierre Posier. Costello goes to Rey's home, which, as Costello finds out, is the same house in which the piano player lives. Costello shoots and kills Rey and goes to Martey's nightlub.
In the meantime, police ransack Jane's apartment, turning her dressers inside-out, hoping to break her will and compel her into confessing. Using scare tactics (one involving the Vice Squad), the Superintendent tries to make a deal with Jane. He tells her that if she admits to have collaborated in fabricating Jef's alibi, she would find no trouble with the police. Jane responds, "So you mean to say that if I perjure myself I will not find trouble with you. If I insist on telling the truth, then I can expect trouble. Am I right?" and shows the police officers the door.
Whereas previously Costello had tried to be discreet and unseen by the nightclub goers, this time he comes in full view. He checks in his hat, but does not take the coupon the young woman gives him. He walks over to the bar, where he puts on his white gloves, again in full view of everyone at the night club, especially the barkeeper. Costello walks toward Valérie and pulls his gun out at her. She warns him not to stay, and after seeing the weapon, she simply asks "Why, Jef?" To which he replies, "I was paid to." After a moment of staring, we hear gunshots, but not from Jef's gun. Costello falls to the ground and dies. A junior police officer tells Valérie she is lucky they (the police) were there -- otherwise, Costello would have killed her. The Superintendent picks up Jef's gun and opens it for all (the police, Valérie, and the audience) to see. There were no bullets in the gun.
[edit] Alternate Ending
In an interview with Rui Nogueira, Melville indicated that he had shot an alternate version of Jef's death scene. In the alternate ending, which is actually the original version as Melville had written in the script, Costello met his death with a picture-perfect grin à la Delon.
[edit] Interpretations
This can be understood as Jef's decision to commit suicide by coming unarmed and unprotected in a place where he knew the police would be able to kill him. Having been paid to kill the piano player, he could not find it in him to do it, and thus failed in his mission. However, by carrying out the assassination up to the point of the actual killing, Jef is proving to the other players that he could have, if he so wished, completed his mission. This act preserves both his pride and his honor.
[edit] Influences
Hong Kong director John Woo's 1989 cult film, The Killer, was heavily influenced by Le Samouraï's plot, the bar female pianist being replaced by a bar female singer. Chow Yun-Fat's play as Jeffrey Chow (international character name for Ah Jong) was obviously inspired by Alain Delon's Jef. The inspiration, or homage, is confirmed by the similarity in the character names.
Jim Jarmusch paid homage to Le Samouraï with the 1999 crime-drama, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker as a meditative, loner assassin who lives by the bushido code. In the same manner that Jef Costello has a huge ring of keys that enables him to steal any Citroën DS, the hit man Ghost Dog has an electronic "key" to break into luxury cars. [1] [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Hoberman, J. March 1-7, 2000. "Into the Void". Village Voice (retrieved October 14, 2006)
- ^ Thorsen, Tor, Reel.com."Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" (DVD review, retrieved October 14, 2006)
[edit] Further reading
Books
- Nogueira, Rui (ed.). 1971. Melville on Melville. New York: Viking Press.
- ISBN 67046757X (hardbound), 670019267 (paperbound)
- Vincendeau, Ginette. 2003. Jean-Pierre Melville : 'an American in Paris'. London: British Film Institute.
- ISBN 0851709508 (hardbound), 0851709494 (paperback)
[edit] External links
| Jean-Pierre Melville |
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Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'un clown (1945) • Le Silence de la mer (1947) • Les Enfants terribles (1950) • Bob le flambeur (1955) • Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959) • Léon Morin, prêtre (1961) • Le Doulos (1963) • L’Aîné des Ferchaux (1963) Le Deuxième souffle (1966) • Le Samouraï (1967) • L'Armée des ombres (1969) • Le Cercle rouge (1970) • Un flic (1972) • |
