Wonderful film directed by the great Melville who manages to describe the loneliness and meticulousness of the killer Jef by referring to the rituality of the samurai.
From the first shot the viewer can understand everything, Jef is lying on the bed while smoking a cigarette in a scene where the environment of the room reigns supreme with strong blacks and grays and the feeling of cold coming from the windows; we immediately understand how the protagonist is alone and lives his profession in habit.
The grays and blacks are almost omnipresent in the film which give the film a funereal and at the same time glacial tone just like the killer . The photography, also through the shadows on the protagonist's face and the ability to juggle the shades of gray but also the musty colours, attributable to Jeff's house, always manages to give the right atmosphere.
The staging is therefore excellent, all the settings offer paintings and atmospheres of the highest level, just think of Jef's advance in the club bathrooms with those gray checkered walls with the shadows in the background, but also at the same time in the club with those blacks and reflective walls, the train station police but also Jef's house itself is very interesting because it has dirty edges, we notice the rather worn hanging pans so it also contrasts with various films where the killer lives in large and luxurious houses.
Emblematic is the fact that Jef has a bird, therefore caged, in case it actually represents himself, the protagonist is imprisoned in this life, in his profession and even during the events of the film he is harassed by many parties, the police and the clan to which he responds.< br />There is no shortage of mirror games, at the club where he commits the first murder or even when he enters Jane's house which in fact represents a sort of internal duality.
Because if it is true that Jef is glacial and magnetic both for the look, that in his actions, however, ways out are presented to him, or rather; the character of Jane could represent an alternative couple's life. The scene where the two, Jef and Jane, talk and Jane has a background with warm tones behind her is excellent, heat also represented by her hair which emanates light, while Jef has a cold background.
Melville therefore hardly traces any loopholes or moments of happiness for the protagonist, his encounters with women are always brief and in fact the only way out seems to be death, taking up the story of the samurai's harakiri.
Stupendous film in all respects, both as killer film itself, the cold gun shots with perfect editing, the rituality of the white gloves but also just the entire construction of the initial alibi; as written it also works for narration, staging and clearly direction.
A pearl.