Taking Sides: Jean-Pierre Melville vs Sergio Leone

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cuttings

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 10 February 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

i have le samourai on dvd, but havent watched it yet

― terry lennox. (gareth), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

Music's better in Leone

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

I liked Le Cercle Rouge, is that him?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

yes

both right-wingers - 'fistful of dynamite' a riposte to left-wing spaghettis like 'a bullet for the general', melville outspokenly against '68 etc despite being a darling of the nouvelle vague (appearing in a bout de souffle etc). Both of them obsessed by Hollywood and driven to create Euro versions of classic American genres - Leone's version of the western way more defeatist/cynical, Melville's noir as the expression of French cool. Both of them much more comfortable w/ male protaganists and macho values

Leone is a MASTER filmmaker - editing/landscape/colour/movement/framing/close ups/character music all knotted together in an immaculate visual style - even Melville pales in comparsion

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

i'm glad ward explained why i'd made this a TS!

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

'the army of the shadows' (1969) (GREAT film, but hilariously ultra-gaullist) only reached london in 1978, i just found out. it's getting rereleased soon.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 10 February 2006 10:58 (nineteen years ago)

Leone wasn't a right winger - he just wasn't especially left wing

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 February 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

Leone - not really renowned as a political (or any kind of) thinker

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 February 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

MELVILLE all the way for me.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 10 February 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

LEONE by a mile.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 10 February 2006 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

I love Melville!

But Sergio Leone is on another level, far above him.

― gear (gear), Friday, 10 February 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

I'm probably going to see JPM's Le Doulos after work:

http://www.filmforum.org/films/ledoulos.html

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 6 July 2007 17:02 (eighteen years ago)

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