Can someone explain why this film is praised as much as it is...

Can someone explain why this film is praised as much as it is? Everywhere I look for reviews all i get is "cult classic", "masterpiece", or just simply "cool" without explanation. Of course I understand the samurai symbolism and the influence it had, but can someone explain what made this film so special?

pleb

Could you extrapolate please?

You enjoy the films of Wes Anderson.

I can whole heartedly say i've never seen a movie by Wes Anderson.

I found this movie to be pretty fucking unremarkable outside a couple of striking moments of great composition and cinematography.

heh pleb

Why are you memeing? Could you just answer what I promted?

Is that you nick?

when it comes to 'classics' that seem unremarkable/boring, the general answer is that the movie was probably the first to pull off some noteworthy tropes that have been repeated so often in TV shows and movies since then that they've become a genre staple.

Ah I see. Thank you for your answer.

It's just a really minimalistic almost plotless and wordless take on the noir genre, and really nails the atmosphere of doom and solitude. You have to keep in mind how different it feels to a regular classic American noir, how much of an evolution it was, its stylistic purity. It's utterly controlled by a filmmaker doing a conscious homage whereas previous attempts were products of studios and had more mainstream narrative approaches. Even something like point blank which was already a bold step towards something else after noir doesn't feel as fully realized and unique. Melville was 100% indie and had his own studio, he slept in the room above and would get the sets ready in the morning before the others arrived, the man was an obsessive perfectionist who lived for his love of gangster films. Now the cool reputation it has is a bit overblown and it being French and old draws hipsters out but it's still a really innovative film with a great atmosphere and very precise filmmaking.

maybe that's the problem, eh?

it's overrated as fuck, i fell for the meme too.

army of shadows is Melville's true kino

Your first sentence were my thoughts as well. Also, thank you for you very neat trivia and response, user.

No.

from reading this thread you sound like a fucking idiot op. some films are meant to felt, not to be understood

Le Cercle Rouge > Le Samurai

i don't agree
le cercle rouge is great but is a bit too much of a standard thriller; le samourai is reduced to a story of signs which makes it such a great watch
i once asked kazuo ishiguro what his favourite film was and he said le cercle rouge though so it's nobel prize laureate approved

neither are very good, army of shadows is kino though

From my 4 small responses you deduced I'm an idiot? For trying to understand something? You could've just said it was meant to be felt instead of making fun of me without reason. Shame on you.

(you)

Whatever, man. Have a (You).

It's the most overrated movie ever, ridiculously lapped up by your average Letterboxd snob.

day of the jackal is another overrated, superficial and dull movie that does that juvenilely glamorises assassins.

It's not.

t. uncool beta faggot

just got done reading a shit review of some faggots putting down the masterpiece that is 2049 over the original bladerunner over nostalgia so i wanna get out of the way this movie isnt built on such ideals, its pacing and atmosphere define it, sit down and watch it late at night relaxed and in a dark room and trust me youll be mesmerized

3/4 of this post are meme words

Thank you for your response, user. Ill give this movie another try, but in a different setting.

What I think is so enduring about Le Samourai is its mixture of American film noir and Japanese samurai films, and its influence.

- Jef Costello (or elements of his character) can be seen in a lot of popular movie assassins. John Wick, Vincent from Collateral, Chow Yun-fat in The Killer, The Driver (from both Walter Hill’s film The Driver, and NWR’s Drive) can all be traced back to Jef Costello.

- What Melville did was take the samurai film and make it more accessible to western audiences.

- Jef Costello was a revolution in assassin film history. No longer were hitmen reckless grunts going on suicide missions. They were now incredibly methodical killing machines.

Tl;dr — It’s pretty much impossible to make an film about an assassin and not steal from Le Samourai.

...

>he doesn't appreciate the minimal noir elements and pure symbolism of the characters
Pay attention to how seemingly important Jef's fedora is too him, how he won't leave without it. Such simply but brilliant filmaking is definitive on its own. There's a reason such films inspire so much.

Costello wasn't as autistic as I thought he'd be.