It’s been years since I first saw this film in re-release, and I’m a sucker for all things Alain Delon, so when I caught a few moments of Le Samouraï at a local wine bar, I said to myself, “Hmm, color column…” This is a policier from 1967, an oh-so-French existential crime drama in which Delon plays an assassin hired to kill a club owner. We have thugs, killers, double dealers, gun molls, girl singers, and all the requisite sets to make it look sexy. Whereas the set design of the whole film is interesting, the room that attracts me most is Jef’s lair...
It’s spare, bare, bleak and beautiful, just like Alain Delon. It seems typically theatrical of French Films of the period (see my Umbrellas of Cherbourg post), but look at the details — panel molding, those great fabrics and that weird European kitchen. The finish on the walls looks like dry-brushing in gray glazes, and matches the fabric on the bed and windows. I’d love to have a room like that; though it was done 40 years ago it looks so au courant it could have happened tomorrow.
Possible color matches from Benjamin Moore Affinity deck:
• Metropolitan AF-690
• Storm AF-700
• Cinder AF-705
• Secret AF-710
- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter
suddenly i need a birdcage
view razel's profile
All of Jean Pierre Melville's films have a great "look"-- check out the nightclubs in particular. Also, Rene Clement's take on The Talented Mr. Ripley: Purple Noon, also starring the impossibly beautiful Mr. Delon.
view Limonata's profile
everything in Le Samouraï, whether it's the composition, editing, costumes, sets, acting, or music is stylized & quite stark & efficient. I think you're right on the mark when you say its au courant. even when I don't assign it, my students love it so much they ask to write about it. they also love the Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Pickpocket, & Breathless, which have similar emphasis on style and minimal modernist aesthetics.
view timmy jr.'s profile
LOL razel... as i was reading, i was thinking that the birdcage i just snapped up from a family member meets AT's approval. :-)
i have no bird though...
view creative*type's profile
Suddenly, I feel like the wine bar I frequent has been cheating me....
I loved the flat of the nightclub singer the best. I found Jef's flat to be lonely, sad and missing something (other than an "f") but perfect for a hitman with one foot in the grave.
view JoeBlack's profile
don't worry creative*type! you can fill it with flowers, or candles...oo i'm daydreaming of so many possibilities!
view razel's profile
Flowers, candles, plants, big ball of string lights---if the bottom comes off, a bowl of fish---
view Aulaire's profile
those are great ideas. thanks razel and aulaire. i'll have to figure something very quirky... the room is starting to go "glam" on me. :-)
view creative*type's profile
Would like to see YOU in trenchcoat with cool hat and threatening paint brush. And maybe sunglasses.
view MadameJanet's profile