Tarantino Calls This Forgotten 96%-Rated Crime Gem His Favorite Screenplay Ever

French director Jean-Pierre Melville has had a profound influence on many classics of world cinema. Jean-Luc Godard, for example, credits Melville with helping him create one of his first films, Breathless, with his innovative editing technique.

Another French director, Francois Truffaut, consulted Melville when making his famous movie Fahrenheit 451.

And when Quentin Tarantino was accused of not having a film education, he replied that you don't have to go to film school, because if you watch Melville's films and understand that you just really love cinema, then you can't help but make a good movie.

Tarantino Names Le Doulos His Favorite Screenplay

In particular, Tarantino highlights one of Melville’s films, Le Doulos (or The Informer), calling it his favorite screenplay of all time:

“Le Doulos has always been probably my favourite screenplay of all time. […] The first time you see it, you have no idea that mystery is gonna be solved as well as it is.”

Le Doulos Is a Noir Masterpiece

Released in 1962 and starring the top French star of the time, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Le Doulos was a true masterpiece of French noir. But not only of that genre.

Even compared to the best examples of Hollywood crime movies of the 40s and 50s, The Informer still looks brilliant. With this movie, Melville develops the topic of moral ambiguity in police-gang interactions.

In this movie, the main character is a police informant who has a stronger code of honor than his friends on the both sides of the law. In the future, Melville will continue to create on-screen worlds with a confused moral compass, where those who were not accepted as heroes in the 60s will become such.

Reservoir Dogs Pays Homage to Melville

Unlike Martin Scorsese, who also embellishes his projects with subtle references to his favorite films, Tarantino turns his movies into an ultimate complex mix of his favorite scenes and genres. It's not a rip-off, it's a reimagining, and no one does it better than Tarantino.

While critics have attributed many different inspirations to Quentin's Reservoir Dogs, particularly Hong Kong crime films, the director himself has admitted that his debut is an homage to Melville.

This is confirmed by the fact that at the beginning of the script for Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino placed a list of dedications with the names of those cinematic talents who directly influenced his work, Jean-Paul Melville included.

Source: Film Comment