Melville is a film director I like very much. Seven years ago, I edited an internal magazine of the film agency. The first issue was the topic of "Lone Pioneer—Melville Retrospective". At that time, I wrote this topic "The Melville You Can’t Know Twelve Things About Weir.
[1] Melville was a pioneer of independent production (one said that he was the first filmmaker to start independent production). In October 1945, Melville retired, and in November, founded Melville Independent Production Company.
[2] Melville has a soft spot for American culture, and people call him "an American in Paris." The name "Melville" comes from the American writer and author of "Moby Dick"-Herman Melville. In many of Melville's films, he always took pictures of the streets of Paris very American.
[3] The famous French writer Jean Cocteau is also a very good director himself. He has directed works such as "Blood of the Poet" and "Beauty and the Beast". Because of his appreciation of Melville's talent, he gave his novel "The Scary Children" to Melville to adapt, and the success of the film once again confirmed Melville's talent.
[4] Melville is the "spiritual father" of French New Wave directors. Godard, Truffaut and others all respect him. Melville rarely appeared in movies, but he played the role of a writer in Godard's feature film debut and the iconic New Wave "Exhausted".
[5] The following directors can be said to be Melville fans: Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jamush, Neil Jordan, Alan Kono, Wu Yusen, Du Qifeng, Peng Haoxiang...
[6] Movies adapted from Melville's work: "Bob the Righteous Thief" (2002, director: Neil Jordan, adapted from "Fever" [also known as "Bob the Gambler"]), "Quiet as the Sea" (2004, director: Pierre Boutron, adapted from "The Silence of the Sea"), "Second Breath" (2007, director: Alan Kono, adapted from "Second Breath")... Someone in preparation or dream : "Red Circle" (Director: Johnnie To, adapted from "Red Circle", prepared a few years ago, but there is no follow-up yet), "Lone Killer" (Director: Wu Yusen, adapted from "Lone Killer", this is Wu Yusen’s dream One, there is currently no below).
[7] Melville joined the army in 1937 and retired in 1945. Melville participated in the entire World War II. Melville has two films about World War II, one is his feature film debut "The Silence of the Sea", the other is "Shadow Legion" about the Resistance (organization engaged in underground work), Melville is the latter To commemorate his years when he joined the resistance organization in World War II.
[8] Melville has worked with many big stars in France that year, Alain DeLong, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Yves Montand... However, this list is almost exclusively male. It is said that Melville is not good at directing women in acting.
[9] Alan Delon can be said to be Melville’s screen spokesperson. He starred in three of Melville’s last four works: "Lone Killer" (1969), "Red Circle" (1970), "Big Dawn" "(1972), these are also the three most outstanding works in Alan Delon's screen career. The "Zorro" that domestic audiences are familiar with is so indistinguishable in front of these three films.
[10] Since Li Yang proposed the term "Magic Shadow", the term "Magic Youth" has suddenly become popular among movie fans. Godard and Trüfner are undoubtedly the "golden generation" of "Magic Youth". But if it is said that the "fascination" is the most poisonous, Melville is no less than any film master, because N years ago he said: "Watching movies is the best profession in the world."
[11 ] Melville likes cats. He has three cats in his family. Melville, who was lonely all his life, once said: "We will always be five lonely individuals-me, my wife and my three cats."
[12] "Fate" is the theme of most of Melville's movies, because he knows that his life is one of the greatest "fate". On August 2, 1973, Melville died of a heart attack at the age of 55. It is said that his great-grandfather, grandfather and father all died at the same time due to the same disease-the end of this fatalism, which coincides with the ending of a Melville film noir.
[Appendix: "Introduction" of Melville Film]
Melville likes to use subtitles to type a sentence at the beginning of the film as the outline of the film. Below are the "forewords" of his four films.
"Eyeliner": "In black words, the Greek word "loyal servant" also means "hat", but in the circle of police and bandits, "loyal servant" is used to refer to those who wear a hat, that is The eyeliner of the police."
"Second Breath": "A person has only one inherent right, that is, to choose his own death; if he chooses to die because he is tired of his life, then his life is meaningless.
" "Lone Killer": "A samurai can endure the most unbearable loneliness in the world. Perhaps only the tiger in the forest can compare with it." (from "The Way of the Samurai")
"Red Circle": "The Buddha said:'Although people I didn't know at the beginning that they would meet one day after all. Even if their lives are different, they follow a different path, and on a certain day, they will eventually meet in the blood circle (red circle). '"
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