Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Le Samourai (1967)

   This movie has nothing to do with samourai. Much as the movie Ronin has nothing to do with ronin. And The Last Samourai has nothing to do with the Japanese.

It is, in fact, about a hitman who gets burned for a job by his employer. I can feel you perking back up. Let me quash your enthusiasm with a number of points:


It's in French.


There's no sex.


There's very little actual killing.


There is almost no score, which means that long parts of the movie are quiet.


But it's not a bad movie for all that. It has a very realistic feel, probably due to the utter lack of effects. Like, when our "hero" the hitman gets double-crossed and shot in the arm. The wound itself looks pretty fake. I've gotten worse bathing the cat. But he is pale and shaky as he bandages it and in subsequent scenes, he doesn't forget that he was injured and slug somebody or slide down a drainpipe. He actually, you know, acts. Silly foreigners.


Still, I probably wouldn't recommend this unless you're already a fan of French cinema. If your favorite part of The Professional (or Leon if you're a purist) was the bit of his life before Matilda moves in, this might be the movie for you. If you liked the Gary Oldman drug-fueled rants and adorable Natalie Portman-ness of it, you might want to skip this one.

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