Le samouraï
After professional hitman Jef Costello is seen by witnesses his efforts to provide himself an alibi drive him further into a corner.
Le Samouraï (1967)
(NR, 105 min.)
Showtimes
Friday, May 10, 2024
(TBD)
Restored in 4K by Pathé and the Criterion Collection at L’Immagine Ritrovata from the 35 mm original camera negative.
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lonewarrior mythology. [Janus]
Starring: Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Language: French
Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Thriller
"One of [Jean-Pierre Melville's] best."
— Peter Rainer, FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
"Achieves an atmosphere of mesmerizing, otherworldly beauty and grace."
— Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
"An austere poem of crime, Le Samourai manages to have a grip of an old-fashioned potboiler as well. Not a half-bad combination."
— Kenneth Turan, Washington Post
"[Melville's] style remains haunting and elegantly spare, just right for the kind of hit man who lives in silence, in bare and colorless surroundings, with a lonely caged bird."
— Janet Maslin, New York Times
"It combines stylish direction, an intelligent script, first-rate performances, and overpowering atmosphere into one of the most tense and absorbing thrillers ever to reach the screen."
— James Berardinelli, ReelViews
"Filmmakers as diverse as Quentin Tarantino and Paul Schrader were influenced by Melville, and Hong Kong action director John Woo calls the film 'the closest to a perfect movie that I have ever seen.'"
— Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
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