Le Samourai (1967)

LE SAMOURAI (1967)
By Ralph Santini - ****

One the finest crime dramas of the 1960s (if not of all time), Jean Pierre Melville’s visually exciting gem “Le Samourai” is an absolute must see. It is deservedly quiet unlike otherwise no-brainer crime dramas that make far less impact than this. This is a different kind of crime drama where we stay focus on the film’s gripping anti-hero, Jef Costello (a winning performance by Alain Delon). He is a quiet young assassin for hire who at the beginning goes to do a job for a group of mobsters to kill a nightclub owner telling him “I just want to kill you”. Costello does so and he does his best by finding an Alibi in case he gets arrested for murder, by changing cars, license plates, hiding out his gloves and weapons, even by visiting briefly the building with the apartment his fiancée lives in.

But that’s not all what this magical character can do, every time he gets out of his renting room, as stated by Roger Ebert in his 1997 review when the film was rereleased in his Chicago hometown, he simply  “puts on his fedora, adjusting the brim with delicate precision, and goes out into the street” (1997 par. 1). Another statement by Roger Ebert towards this film is that “like a painter or a musician, a filmmaker can suggest complete mastery with just a few strokes. Jean-Pierre Melville involves us in the spell of "Le Samourai" (1967) before a word is spoken. He does it with light: a cold light, like dawn on an ugly day. And color: grays and blues. And actions that speak in place of words” (1997 par. 2). 

Sometimes we do need motion pictures to start the first 15 minutes without any dialogue, because excellent films like this makes them passionate. We have been through thousands of inferior films that start with sometimes too much dialogue and sometimes that can be boring. Do you know what happens in this film before any dialogue in this film is spoken? Well, in the same quiet beginning, Costello, steals a car, drives it down a dirty little street directly to an obscure hideout of a garage and then the door opens. After that he hides the car where its mechanic changes the front license plates while Costello is waiting patiently by smoking. The mechanic finishes the job, and he hands him not a friendly handshake but a six gun and Costello puts it in his pocket. Then Costello gives the mechanic the cash and then he just drives away. There is not one use of dialogue in this absolutely remarkable sequence.

Delon was barely in his early 30s when he made this film and he was still a good looking young man. In fact he was so good looking that the appeal in his face had to be dubbed “Poker” because his character of Jef Costello is not an angel whatsoever. Like I mentioned earlier, Costello has killed a businessman in cold blood, which can mean his freedom since this serious murder degree is against the law which in those days meant execution. In fact film critic David Thomson said that Delon was a "beautiful destructive angel of the dark street".

More details in the incredible story of Jef Costello is that he would be arrested to be taken to a routine checkup. However there are certains speculations by the witnesses some of them lying, others wanting to denounce him to justice. This would eventually lead the police to reluctantly free Costello but eventually after the crime boss finds out about his arrest he decides to betray him with murder. Not only he has to face those traitors but also the police force who chase him all the way through the Paris Metro. However he is aided by two women, first his young and beautiful fiancée (played by Delon’s then wife Nathalie) who would do anything to hide him out even if it means a perjury charge that might give her only a certain prison sentence.

The other woman is black pianist named Valerie (wonderfully portrayed by Caty Rosier) who previously lied to the police during the lineup and then find themselves with each other in a car conversation but she feels regrets by asking him “why did you kill my boss, what kind of a gentleman are you?”. This might lead us to a mystery without explanations on why she did all that in the whole story. Maybe it’s because she wanted to help him or simply because she knows the gang that ordered the businessman’s murder so nothing can happen to her if there is a screw-up during the job. Anyway this description can tell us how great the story of this film is told. It is perfectly flawless and devoid of routine elements.

“Le Samourai” is an extraordinarily compelling motion picture. It is by far one of director Jean-Pierre Melville’s finest masterpieces and marks one of Delon’s seminal performances throughout his entire career. It also explains why the filmmaker is among one of the finest filmmaker’s of French Cinema because he knows how to take things seriously with his stories. The minimal use of dialogue in this film is also fascinating because it can hold you captive making you not want to forget this refreshing use of art.