THE DAY OF THE MODEL

I've always been a fan of the film The Day of the Jackal 1973. 

I often recall how the dogged Detective Claude Lebel, played by Michael Lonsdale, relaxed by making military miniatures. 

In the film, if I remember correctly, we see Lebel modelling a figure under a light and maybe a magnifying glass just before he receives the call from the top brass to drop everything.  I think the figures may have been from the Napoleonic wars and Lebel  may even place one in a diorama he's made.

Its a great scene of calm in an otherwise frenetic story of the secret lone assassin hired to shoot Le President. I just can't find a clip or still of him doing it! [can you?]

So imagine how amazed I was 30+ years later when I saw Michael Lonsdale in another film about hoods for hire again making military miniatures under a magnifying light! he just can't stop modelling!

The film is Ronin starring Robert de Niro and Jean Reno from 1998. It tells the story of a rabble of robbers hired to steal a suitcase containing who knows what. Naturally it all goes belly up and De Niro's character is shot. Reno takes him to a rogue doctor, one Michael Lonsdale.

Its in the crime doctor's house we see Lonsdale once again making model figures or more specifically, painting samurai. He explains to De Niro that he's making a famous Japanese battle called the 47 Ronin. Ronin were masterless samurai who roamed old Japan, essentially swords for hire, much like the gang of thieves in the film, hence the film's title.

I've managed to find a clip of this samurai model painting and the Ronin explanation on You Tube:

I wonder if Michael Lonsdale is a miniature modeller in real life? Turning up in two separate films is off the sprue I think. Go figure!

It stirs great memories in me when I see this clip as I too painted Samurai. I was obsessed with the Japanese warriors when I was a kid as they formed a key part of my Martial Arts craze in the early Seventies.

I've blogged about my Samurai models before here and also some other Samurai modelling magazines I had include a Night Attack by Ronin diorama that I adored. I would stare at the photographs of how to make it for hours as a kid but never tried. The photographs on the magazine were enough.