Le Samourai by Jean-Pierre Melville

I saw Le Samourai on TCM. What a brilliant opening scene in this crime thriller film masterpiece. Alain Delon is lying on his back on his bed motionless in his large dreary room. The only movement in the room is the languorous smoke unfurling from his cigarette. The only sounds we hear are the constant chirping of his canary in its cage and the drone of drizzle and sporadic traffic outside the window. This is such a great atmospheric scene. These modern filmmakers could learn a lot from this film’s director, the great Jean-Pierre Melville. Instead of all their herky-jerky camerawork to create excitement and nausea in the viewer, Le Samourai‘s opening scene with little action and no camera movement is brilliant at creating a tense atmosphere of loneliness that imparts an emotionally bankrupt individual. You don’t need all the frenetic camera movement to create a dynamic, impactful scene.