After Zhang Yimou's "Shadow" was released, he walked into the theater twice to watch the film, not because the plot was complicated and could not be understood, but with a high-grade gray ink style shooting, I was afraid that I did not watch it twice, and it would be difficult to see it in the theater later.
The gray tone of "Shadow" always reminds people of "Lone Killer". This is a French film made in 1967, although it is old, but it is the originator of the killer film, whether it is "The Godfather", or "The Two Heroes", "The Old Man", or Quentin's film, you can find the shadow of "Lone Killer". I don't know why recently, although I have watched it countless times before, when I watched "Lone Killer" again, I had to have a little high respect for Melville.
Stills from "The Lone Killer"
The greatness of "Lone Killer" can still be excavated to this day. The first is that the director uses a minimalist and restrained shooting method to make the slow-paced storyline tense, the reversed plot is fascinating, and the beautiful and perfect ending is amazing. Originally, the storyline was very simple, a killer named Jeff, he stood up a trench coat, wide-brimmed top hat, hurried, very gentlemanly, but cold and taciturn, solitary. Since he is a killer, he is collecting money to kill people, and he doesn't care much about anything else. After a mission to kill the owner of the bar, she was bumped into by the African female pianist, because the female pianist, as an eyewitness on the scene, faced the police, she denied that Jeff had killed, so it caused Jeff's doubts, and the story began to have a dramatic reversal. When Jeff was acquitted, the police, although they could not find any evidence, still kept a close eye on Jeff, causing Jeff to avoid tracking through the streets of Paris every day.
Secondly, the plot of the movie is perfect, and every place and every suspense detail can stand up to scrutiny. A feature film, or a suspense film, can do this, it can be called a good film, "Lone Killer" although it tells the fateful story of a Bushido killer, but it can do it. Especially in the end, Jeff comes to the bar and points a gun at the female pianist, and after the ambush police officer shoots at him, he finds that Jeff's gun is not loaded. Such an ending makes everything that happened before seem indispensable, even if you play it back slowly.
Finally, the editing and soundtrack of the film, which can be done in that era, is a classic. Killers roam the streets of Paris, as well as the subway or overpasses, without good editing, and it's easy to get bored. Arguably, it's the editing that makes the simple story more compact. The most intriguing part of the film is the soundtrack, the parisian streets with a sense of age, accompanied by jazz, which may be another reason why we watch the film repeatedly.
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