Alain Delon
Jef Costello
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Jun 8, 1997 · Like a painter or a musician, a filmmaker can suggest complete mastery with just a few strokes. Jean-Pierre Melville involves us in the spell of "Le Samourai" (1967) before a word is spoken. He does it with light: a cold light, like dawn on an ugly day. And color: grays and blues.
Le samouraï. 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.
Flowing, oppressively grey, and tightly edited, Le Samurai is able to capture and convey the intrigue and anxiety of both being a hunted criminal and a rights-violating law enforcement officer.
- (38)
- Crime, Drama
- PG
Described by Melville as "the analysis of a schizophrenic by a paranoiac,” LE SAMOURAÏ is the pinnacle of the French policier, blacker than noir in its silence, isolation, and stylization, but unrelenting in its suspense. Its masterly set-pieces — two highly dissimilar car thefts, the police line-up, shaking the cops on the Métro, the hit ...
Nov 13, 2017 · 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 lone-warrior mythology.
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 lone-warrior mythology. Show more.
Written by CRCulver on September 1, 2018. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, 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.
