The notion of anonymity as a protective shell is strongest in Le Samouraï, as indicated by Jeff's nonchalance during the murder, identity parade, and ensuing surveillance. He is so absorbed in his solitude that he is sure he will remain anonymous. Observe the casual way he disposes of the incriminating gauze in the streets. He even returns to the scene of the crime the next day. The efforts of the police force are an attempt to wrest Jeff from his protective anonymity: in the identity parade he is lined up with several others wearing similar trench coats and fedoras. As witnesses try to identify him among these identical figures they are really trying to extract him from the anonymous masses of Paris.
Labyrinth/Jungle
The labyrinth metaphor is another of the consistent themes in the New Wave vision of Paris. Generally, it portrays Paris and ultimately modernity as a hostile, maze-like environment that threatens its inhabitants. A bout de souffle illustrates this: although Michel's objectives (Patricia and the money) are situated in Paris, he nevertheless desperately wants to escape it for Rome and the narrative concerns his breathless race to do this. Paris tries to trap him: when he meets Tolmatchoff the camera back-tracks ahead of them as they progress to an interior room. The continuous take makes the encounter resemble a trap into which Michel is lured.11
Updates concerning Michel's progress in his race are given via electrical signs used to display headlines. As the words, "the net is closing around Michel Poiccard," and, "Michel Poiccard: arrest imminent," flash around the buildings, it seems that Paris itself is his adversary.
Le Samouraï also evokes a, film noir-influenced, labyrinthine city. When Jeff leaves his flat a heavy deluge renders the streets of Paris as slick as any noir city. In later scenes, foreboding shadows and chiaroscuro invest interiors with the fatalistic, restless mood that is the essence of film noir. Even Delon's costume resurrects the persona of Humphrey Bogart, while the card game is a stereotypical film noir scenario.
Jeff's excursion into the nightclub to find his target resembles very closely the trap into which Michel walks in A bout de souffle. Jeff is also caught in the labyrinth of Paris. But Jeff's trap introduces a new dimension to this theme. He has to descend into the nightclub's basement: Le Samouraï extends the labyrinth metaphor by reconstructing Paris as an underworld that one must descend into before engaging with it. The cinematography gives Paris a murky, dank and melancholy look, appropriate to the underworld theme. Paris abounds with metallic, steely-blue colours and cold greys to such an extent that Tom Milne has written, "Jeff Costello"s Paris [is] a chillingly twilit, blue-grey hell.'12
When enacting this retelling of the descent myth, Jeff encounters the pianist. Melville has stated that she personifies Death13, it is therefore appropriate that Jeff should become transfixed by her while in this subterranean world - making the underworld theme all the more apprehensible.
The term also implies the notion of a criminal underworld. This is evident in Le Samouraï, as virtually every character is connected in some way with crime. Jeff encounters only criminal or crime-associated figures. Even the police force is tarnished by its existence in the underworld of Paris: those who search Jeff's apartment behave exactly like criminals, a resemblance emphasised by the method of breaking in that they share with Jeff.
Lastly, the jungle metaphor already commented upon offers some of the most striking effects in Le Samouraï. The characters of the film correspond to the hierarchy of a jungle, including predators (Jeff, Wiener, the assassin), hunters (the Inspector and police), and prey (Jeff's victim). After he is shot a character refers to Jeff as a wounded wolf, implying that he is now more dangerous. This likening to an animal and the notion that when wounded his ferocity will increase clearly locate the drama in a Darwinian world of survival of the fittest, analogous to a jungle. Jeff does indeed behave like an animal on several occasions, emphasised by Delon's almost silent performance. When returning to the crime scene he seems to act on instinct rather than reason. In contrast, the Inspector is motivated by reason and emotion, fundamentally human values, and speaks his thoughts aloud. He is presented as the human hunter of Jeff's animal. Notice the brilliantly orchestrated sequence that cuts between shots of the gangster and Inspector, pacing up and down. They seem to be hunters following Jeff's tracks. It is also significant that Jeff enjoys his greatest affinity with an animal: there is evidently an understanding between him and the bird. 'Jeff and the bird love each other,'14 said Melville, a statement highlighting Jeff's possession of animalistic qualities. All of these factors reaffirm the film's initial assertion that Jeff is a tiger in the vast Parisian jungle.
In conclusion, the New wave contains many films by many directors, each a self-proclaimed "auteur" and each trying to assert his own world-view. This diaspora of by no means congruous viewpoints gives rise to a range of representations of Paris. Some of these have been discussed but others exist that have not. One would be hard pressed to find a single, common view of the city, unless it were that of solitude morale. Paris is both the imprisoning realm of the solitary hero, and the land of opportunity where he or she might find the means to establish a connection and transcend this isolation. In this respect Paris embodies both the attraction and repulsion of modernity, where the individual encounters solitude among a multitude, but also an endless variety that may contain the means of self-assertion and salvation.
