Le Samouraï Daisuke Miyao

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miyao, Daisuke, author.

Series:

BFI film classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Samouraï (Motion picture).

Thrillers (Motion pictures)--France--History and criticism.

Thrillers (Motion pictures).

Melville, Jean-Pierre, 1917-1973--Criticism and interpretation.

Melville, Jean-Pierre.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

London British Film Institute 2026

Summary:

"In this compelling study, Daisuke Miyao explores Jean-Pierre Melville's cult 1967 thriller Le Samouraï, a film that unfolds in a coolly stylised Paris where the paths of a contract killer, Jef Costello (Alain Delon), and the police commissaire pursuing him (François Périer) fatally intersect. Despite its title, Le Samouraï, is not a sword-clashing tale of feudal Japan. Rather, Miyao suggests that the film's philosophical framework draws on both existentialism and the samurai moral philosophy of bushido, or 'the way of the warrior', and considers how these philosophies may help explain Jef Costello's identity crisis and his concluding act of self-annihilation. In a close analysis of Melville's technical and aesthetic decisions, Miyao highlights the film's use of close-ups to convey or mask emotion, the play of light and shadow, and the function of flashbacks and dream sequences in the narrative, as well as the meanings of Costello's pet bullfinch. Setting Le Samouraï within the shifting landscape of post-war French cinema, Miyao traces its dialogue with Hollywood film noir and Japanese art cinema, particularly Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950), suggesting that both genres informed and influenced Melville's film-making. Finally, Miyao discusses the film's enduring legacy, from Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) to Yoko M.'s 2020 novella Jef, a prequel to the film"-- Bloomsbury Collections

Contents:

Vertigo and the ethics of camera movements

The new wave of lighting and the aesthetics of shadow

The birds, the cats and film noir

The mirrors and the close-ups : the stardom of Alain Delon and Sessue Hayakawa

The man who knows too much?

Zen showed Melville the way

Jef, the legacy

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from home page (Bloomsbury Collections, viewed May 6, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Miyao, Daisuke Samouraï

ISBN:

9781839029660

1839029668

9781839029646

1839029641

9781839029653

183902965X

OCLC:

1587322069

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license