As Melville himself put it, “You must be madly in love with cinema to create films. You also need a huge cinematic baggage.” Your awareness of film history, of the technical aspects of filmmaking, of film language, and of your cinematic style are vital to great filmmaking. Determination is another quality that emerges from that mad love for cinema. After serving in World War II, Melville applied to join the union in the French film industry and was rejected. Determined, he opened his own studio and began writing and directing his films. Later, he lost his studio to a fire, only to successfully come out of such a devastation through the need to continue making films. Obstacles always surface for the filmmaker, however, it is how one faces those obstacles that counts. (excerpt from: Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï: “I never lose. Not really.”)
In 2009, the clips from the film featuring Alain Delon (along with Michel Legrand’s “Le Slow de La Piscine” from the movie’s soundtrack) were used in Christian Dior’s commercials for Eau Savage perfume.
Netflix Rating: 4 out of 5
1 Thing I Liked About It:
Alain Delon is great. Complex, boiling-underneath-the-surface type of performance. Carries the film on his shoulders.
1 Thing I Didn’t Like About It:
At one point it descended into a “swinging 60’s” party interlude which went on a bit too long and was a little too much of it’s time.
I already did a spread on Alain Delon’s Style Diary, in case you missed it it’s here. So, now I want to do a nostalgic memorabilia on his best black and white photographs because why not. Happy 80th to the master of boyish allure.
