Quentin Tarantino on Jean-Pierre Melville

Quentin Tarantino reacts to the work of French auteur Jean-Pierre Melville.
Source: American Film Institute, Charlie Rose, Extra Features
www.afi.com/

[@Realsagarbhat]

Melville's Le Samourai is still my favorite hitman movie of all time. Just so so stylish and so good.

[@dr.juerdotitsgo5119]

I don't think I got it too well. [SPOILERS] He *wanted* to die, is that it?

[@northwestpsychfest7329]

he had to die to protect his lover @@dr.juerdotitsgo5119

[@matangox]

​@@dr.juerdotitsgo5119 no, he was living ready to die at any moment, like a real Samurai embracing death whenever it comes.

[@matangox]

Le Samourai is a great hitman movie, but there is another from the same period. It's called Branded to Kill and it's from Japan. It's much more surrealistic and almost confusing, but at the same time so brilliant and very original.

[@dr.juerdotitsgo5119]

@@matangox Sure, but it seemed like he was being "liberated" in that last scene. Although he lived by the discipline, I got the feeling he was getting sloppy on purpose (much like the main character from Crime and Punishment). Perhaps his demanding life choice started to make him feel like his lonely, caged pet bird?

[@marzilyas]

I personally love "Bob Lee Flambleur" and "Lee Samourai" 2:18

[@clairelodge72]

QT giving advise like a supportive mom

[@ja3482]

Never seen any of these but these shots all look incredible

[@burningtime617]

Le Samourai influenced so much modern American ‘cool crime’ movies. Check it out when you can. It’s a near perfect movie and the atmosphere is incredible.

[@TheWizardofOdds-ut2bx]

Its most notable influence would have to be Taxi Driver@@burningtime617

[@watchoutforsnak3s]

It's always nice to watch or read something about Melville. Le Cercle Rouge, Le Doulos, Le Samourai, Leon Morin Priest and Army of Shadows are some of my all time favorites.

[@tylerdordon99]

Un flic is underrated.

[@watchoutforsnak3s]

@@tylerdordon99 Yeah, I enjoyed it. I didn’t think he could take his minimalism any further, but he did. It was also cool to see Richard Crenna in a Melville film. Speaking of A Cop, I highly recommend the James Woods neo-noir Cop. He gives an intense unhinged performance, and it has a great Ellroy script.

[@tylerdordon99]

@@watchoutforsnak3s Yeah I've seen it. I'll always remember that shotgun reload right at the end before it cuts to black. it had an interesting plot for its time and James woods is electric as usual.

[@NorthWestPvPlolrektnoob]

THIS IS THE PERFECT VIDEO TO POST, I just finished le samourai and le cercle rouge

[@nicolaasvanderkruk5029]

Found Le Samourai after watching Fincher's The Killer and watched Le Cercle Rouge this past week, so yes, perfect timing.

[@NorthWestPvPlolrektnoob]

​@@nicolaasvanderkruk5029 If you liked The Killer and Le samourai you should check out Ghost Dog the way of the samurai, it's a cool hitman movie too but with Forest Whitaker and rza from wu tang on the sound track.

[@NorthWestPvPlolrektnoob]

@@nicolaasvanderkruk5029 If you liked The Killer and Le Samourai you should check out Ghost Dog the way of the Samurai. Another rly good hitman movie

[@untitled8005]

I've been meaning to watch Le Cercle Rouge, how did you like it?

[@nicolaasvanderkruk5029]

@@untitled8005 I found the idea of people being connected without them knowing each other very interesting, even more so when they're criminals. The way Melville creates suspense with a minimal score and dialogue stripped of any unnecessary weight is to me very impressive. I wish more films can be so “streamlined” and yet so beautiful and suspenseful.

[@postmodernrecycler]

I swoon for Melville's Paris even more than Truffaut's Paris.

[@JamesKislingbury]

It is my Paris.

[@zerodreaming]

Le Samourai is like Fincher's The Killer, but good.

[@GiorgosTem]

Exactly😅

[@jeremyhopkins577]

I think of Melville's work largely as glacially slow action films. Love it.

[@rafaelmolinari]

Belmondo, such a badass

[@booboobumbum6602]

Le Dolous is a masterpiece - feels so fresh

[@sad99sh24]

One of the best videos of Chanal.

[@oldcobbletexture]

well done on that montage at the end

[@ernestocaro9802]

Le Samourai is a masterpiece

[@bharatbhushanbhandari9855]

Love the way he says Alain Delon

[@Galacticpurveyor]

The irony of Tarantino talking about Melville is, he never mentions the three world war 2 films he made, and Army Of Shadows is his best film. No doubt part of the reason why is he was in the French resistance during the war.

[@willieluncheonette5843]

Melville was French New Wave before the New Wave broke. See Bob the Gambler

[@luckystarship2275]

I wish I had QT's total recall of every film I'd ever seen.

[@massi6528]

Melville is fuckin awesome.

[@StruggleoftheOutsider]

Did QT ever comment on Blue Spring?

[@phantomfire8228]

4:10

[@alexchernandez88]

Tarantino on Herman Melville next?

[@TheRealNormanBates]

0:53 hey, there's that *Blade Runner* tile again!

[@flightofthefatman]

That Paris is long gone. Now it's a cesspool.

[@martimusichannel]

Melville is god

[@phantomfire8228]

3:13

[@CoolCoyote]

2:50 oh wow well done for telling the truth Quentin and nicely spoken too. pity about your last movie though (another selfish movie by you) instead of making a kill bill or a reservoir dogs you made a heapa holywood shit

[@kevinkuenn5733]

"Melville is the Godard I haven't grown out of." Interesting, Tarantino has soured on Godard? He named his production company after a Godard film, that's big if true.

[@johndoderino2609]

Yeah apparently Godard had a less than kind things to say about QT and made fun of the production company name -tribute. He soured on Altman too for similar reasons

[@rockinresurrection6542]

​@@johndoderino2609 Well, Godard soured on Bergmann after some rude comments as well

[@johndoderino2609]

@rockinresurrection6542 oh he was thin skinned as well for sure. Had a falling out with Truffaut too, no?

[@elenkolling8645]

Bah

[@ukaszpolak2606]

4:30 Quentin sounds exactly like Woody Allen for 20 seconds

[@andrewforbes1433]

2:33 The dumbest take on Melville I've heard.

[@laughingBun]

No idea what he was trying to to say here...

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Why does everyone expect filmmakers, even accomplished ones, to be intellectuals? Tarantino is not an intellectual yet his acolytes and general film fans think he is. Same is true for David Lynch. He's more like a folk artist who says very little yet people hinge on their every word like there's some kind of deep wisdom. The wisdom is in the art itself. Tarantino has a kind of photographic memory of film and he can dazzle you with facts and details, but I'd never expect his takes to have particularly edifying insight philosophically. I think Tarantino's "take" here clearly indicates that he really doesn't know what to say. I think he understands Melville at an intuitive level that he can't articulate.

[@CorbCorbin]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@OuterGalaxyLounge And what intellectual, do you think does bring such philosophically edifying insight, into cinema?

[@johndoderino2609]

​@OuterGalaxyLounge spot on. And directors are often the worst at analyzing their own work, and some of course refuse to do it altogether (lynch, coen brothers). They make the work, and it's up to us to make heads or tails out of it

[@ZiggyPeterLewis]

Hell yeah, you could say it for a few films or directors, first film or shorts, fµck you could even say that for Breathless to a certain extend (Godard was known to be a very good technician, the best among New Wave apparently), but Melville is like one of the most precise technicians there is in all History of French cinema..

[@NoNoDigUpStupid]

Le Cercle Rouge is one of the greatest films I've ver seen.

[@manea7074]

Indeed.