I love how economical Melville is with his dialogue. He knows that film is first & foremost a visual medium. He’s a creator of pure cinema. There’s never a point in any of the films I’ve seen of his where the dialogue feels unnecessary, which is more than you can say for contemporary crime film directors today such as Refn & Tarantino. Because of this, Le Samourai is essentially a silent film. The images speak more than any of the characters could. Alain Delon is quiet not because the film forces him to be, but because that’s his character – he’s a loner, an introvert with few interests and connections. When he’s caught and goes through the process of being identified, he creates several connections that he can’t shake throughout the course of the film. Curiosity and fear creates his one way predicament. Melville is the master of creating suspense by seemingly doing so little. A silent little scene where a man places a recording device in a apartment shows us not only the police’s questionable morality (a big theme in Melville’s career, possibly), but also – since it never cuts away – creates tension so thick. Will our protagonist show up? What will happen then? Another instance is the only dialogue heavy scene in the film where a policeman shows up at one of our protagonist’s main connection’s apartment. He questions and threatens her then gives her a potentially sweet deal if she squeaks. We don’t know how strong her feelings are for Costello since he seems to ignore her. I felt that any moment she could of let it out – the actress deliberately makes it seem she’s about to crumble at any second. This scene also shows how the film is somewhat intellectually stimulating: the questionable morality of the police officer invading and going through her home goes along with the repeating theme – are the police just as corrupt as the criminals they’re dealing with? All in all though, Le Samourai is a film more about the pit-of-your-stomach feeling it elicits more than it’s about the thoughts it creates. Simply put, this film is a masterpiece.