Le Samourai vs Army of Shadows

Le Samourai

Before the hit, Jef adjusts his hat brim precisely, raises his coat collar and puts on his gloves. These preparations are filmed with the solemn feeling of a religious ritual. Melville turns professional routine into ceremony. Each step is necessary and exact, and nobody gets to question it.

Army of Shadows

Melville slows everything down. Long takes of people walking, waiting and talking make every act feel like a ritual, and the heavy silences let the weight settle.

Le Samourai

Jef Costello speaks maybe 50 lines in the entire film. Melville builds the character through his rituals of preparation and the precision of how he behaves on the job. For long stretches, you simply watch a man who communicates almost entirely through action. The silence comes across as total self-sufficiency.

Army of Shadows

The camera lingers on faces and hands while characters wait and think. The Resistance fighters rarely explain themselves, so you read their fear and their resolve in the pauses.

Le Samourai

Henri Decaë films Paris in drained grey-blues that don't match the city's real color. The palette comes entirely from Jef's state of mind. The world is grey because it holds no emotional value for a man who has cut feeling out of his life. That is, the colors are a portrait of what goes on inside him.

Army of Shadows

The film is washed in cold blues and grays. The colors tell you the world is bleak and the mood is grim before anyone speaks.