The films:

• Le Samouraï (1967)
• Army of Shadows (1969)
• Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Melville wants his filmmaking to be as meticulous as his subjects. His camera moves are sparse, intentional, wholly necessary. He resists cutting, opting instead to show the camera move to its destination as objects are reframed, cluing us into this motives. We see both his process and that of his characters. It's a class in heists and filmmaking.

It's all about quiet suspense for him. The prisoner whispers his escape plan, then two minutes go by in the presence of a guard before he attempts it. The cop opens the trunk where a gun is stashed, and the camera gestures towards it but doesn't push or zoom in, no music swells. Sound design takes over, asserting the passage of time—a bird chirps monotonously, clocks and wristwatches tick, keys rattle in locks. Only subtleties, though. Melville's heroes don't ever seem to sweat, so why should we? But we do anyway, perhaps more as we're relentlessly reminded we are not them, that we could never withstand such pressure.