Original title: Le Samouraï
Year: 1967
Country: France
Language: French
Number: 466
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Alain Delon, François Périer, Cathy Rosier, Nathalie Delon
There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle... Perhaps... A sentence that is viewed on the screen in the beginning of Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece of a neo-noir which is absolutely true about the plot and it's characters. We get a pretty solid performance from Alain Delon as the cold-blooded hitman Jef Costello. A pretty clever criminal, but what I like even more is the intelligent police force that is actually doing their job and don't sit around and eating donuts.
Le Samouraï is the story about Jef Costello who's living is as an assassin for the mafia. He lives in an empty apartment where the only significant thing is a little canary bird in a small cage. The purpose of this bird isn't only to keep Jef company but also to alert the owner that there been some strangers in his apartment. And it might getting handy because of one hit that might have gone wrong.
This film is simply a joy to watch because most of the suspense lies in Alain Delon straight ice cold face, as it get warmer and warmer of the on going heat. But we also get to see how effective a police organisation really is. It's a better alternative to most american movie where the police is paralyzed and doesn't have any idea of how to do their job, or their just to scared or just lazy. It's the perfect film noir that hit the right strings and knows how to get up the right amount of suspense in the characters and the plot.
Grade: A-
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