He's taken cues from Friedkin and Melville there. The latter's got the laconic gangster thing and Friedkin's talked about emphasising visual storytelling so that you don't have to speak English to enjoy his films.
The Melville influence is blatant, but I'm mentioning Friedkin too because he did a long interview with him on the Sorcerer Blu-ray and that's a very visual film too.
The Melville influence is blatant, but I'm mentioning Friedkin too because he did a long interview with him on the Sorcerer Blu-ray and that's a very visual film too.