vincewynne-02577 I could go on forever about how much I adore this film's tone, cinematography, and pacing, but I'll just say this: This is without a doubt, the coolest film I've ever seen.

elvircorhodzic LE SAMOURAI is a mysterious crime drama film that is made in the pattern of Hollywood gangster films in the noir genre. Mr. Mellville has added several popular details from Japanese culture into a fictitious gangster story. The protagonists, costumes, nightclubs, streets and murders have all the characteristics of the noir genre.Jef Costello lives in a single-room Paris apartment whose spartan furnishings include a little bird in a cage. He is a professional Parisian assassin-for-hire who, by nature of his work's solitary demands, has no friends. Although he is loved by Jane, Costello knows that she already has a lover. After he successfully wipes out a nightclub owner at the behest of his boss, he is seen leaving the scene by several witnesses, including piano player Valérie. Although he survives a police lineup thanks to a lie offered up by the fearless Valerie, Costello's alibi disintegrates rapidly and his shadowy employer takes out a contract on him. He seeks revenge...This is a sort of moral value test in rough circumstances. Namely, the main protagonist is in conflict with the law, his boss and himself. He does not make the difference between human shades. He does what he is paid for, and that, of course, will lead him to his seppuku.This film contains very little dialogue, characterization could have been better, but, the atmosphere is great.Alain Delon as Jef Costello is an attractive man and a cold-blooded killer at the same time. His selfish nature makes him incompetent to life, but unswerving when it comes to his work. Mr. Delon has offered a very good performance.His support are François Périer as a persistent investigating officer, Nathalie Delon (Jane) as a devoted "fiancé", who provides almost perfect alibi, and Cathy Rosier (Valérie) as a brave and enigmatic piano player.The direction is certainly impeccable, however, the plot is a frozen and the romance is improperly superficial.

dromasca What a delight! I remember having seen Le Samouraï as a teenager 50 years ago, during the short few years of ideological and artistic de-icing of the Romanian communist regime between 1964 and 1968, when some of the world cinema crossed the Iron Curtain and hopes to re-connect Romania and Eastern Europe with the rest of the world were growing high. These hopes were cut short by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the melting of the Iron Curtain postponed by more than 20 years. Yet, in that period, a few fine movies were allowed to be seen in the East (some of them 'shortened' the scissors of censorship) and this lot included this fine gangster movie, a capitalist product with no moral message, not one that could be explained to the revolutionary masses in any case.Half a century later I had the feeling to live again some of the sensations at the first screening. I remembered the dark room, the smoke of the cigarette, the tweets of the bird, the raincoat and the hat. Alain Delon's look. Nathalie Delon's sex appeal. Cathy Rosier's mystery. The Citroen car and the garage where number plates were switched. The streets of Paris which for me at that time looked like a city from another planet, a place I will never be able to put the feet in.Of course, I have learned a few things about cinema in this period of time. I can now trace the predecessors of Le Samouraï in the American gangster movies of the 30s and I know that the raincoat was inherited from Humphrey Bogart. I can also identify countless successors that were inspired by this film. Jean-Pierre Melville's work aged beautifully and this is due to the minimalist approach that reduces details to the exact amount necessary to create the suspense and describe the situations, to a story which is smart, complex and makes sense from all angles you analyze it, to the magnetic power of the principal actors and to the cool chemistry constructed between them. A film noir for eternity.

ButaNiShinju Marvellous mood and pace. Melville errs only occasionally by dwelling a bit too long on scenes which don't particularly enhance the mood or advance the narrative .. for example the scene of the two policemen putting the the listening device in Costelo's (Deloin's) flat... it really it goes on and on for an age.Costelo would nowadays more accurately be called a 'Ronin' -- a masterless ex-Samurai who works for hire, but still abides by the Bushido spirit -- asceticism, stoicism, and, ultimately, self-sacrifice. But that is a quibble.. the Samurai spirit is fully hallmarked by Costelo's taciturnity, inexpressiveness, calmness in the face of danger, and final embrace of death.