Heat
Films that shaped it
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I am a big fan of Melville. There is an an existential nature to his films and a specific kind of characterization. It’s hard to say what influence is, but I think the professionalism in Le Samourai has influenced me in all my work, including Heat. I think it’s about that level of dedication, the almost monastic life of the professional.
Films it shaped
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Nicolas Winding Refn crafted Drive as an intoxicating, neon-drenched fairy tale, but its stoic soul belongs entirely to the French cinematic tradition of the ultra-cool, ascetic criminal. Refn and star Ryan Gosling obsessively studied Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï, borrowing Alain Delon's deadpan silence and the mythological code of an underworld phantom who speaks only when absolutely necessary. The film's deliberate, hypnotic pacing and fascination with solitary men navigating fatalistic systems is further reinforced by Melville's Le Cercle Rouge. By bathing the clinical detachment of the French New Wave era in a synth-pop, Los Angeles glow, Refn orchestrated a mesmerizing explosion of romantic brutality.
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Batman Begins Atlas note
Christopher Nolan made his entire team watch Michael Mann's Heat before production began. Not for the action, for the philosophy. Mann's criminals are professionals first, men second; Nolan wanted Bruce Wayne's adversaries to carry the same cold discipline. The interrogation scene between Pacino and De Niro is the template for every Batman/Ra's al Ghul exchange: two men who understand each other completely, across an uncrossable line. Nolan cited this in the 2005 Batman Begins production notes. Heat is on MUBI.
