classicsoncall I'm intrigued by the number of reviews for this film that declare it perfect and the epitome of cool. For a cold, methodical assassin, I thought Jef Costello (Alain Delon) made at least three unforced errors that brought about his eventual downfall. The first and most obvious was when he established his identity with the night club's pianist (Cathy Rosier) by staring her down following the murder of owner Martey. Then, when he was asked by the police to accompany them out of the private card game, Jef automatically went for his coat and hat, which would have been identifying characteristics during the police line-up. Why not just leave them there? And finally, he dumped the bag containing his bloody bandages right out in the street, by this time cognizant of the fact that he was under surveillance by the French police as a murder suspect. So where does this idea come from that he was a consummate professional who was a dozen moves ahead of his adversaries, and never made any mistakes? While I'm at it, I might as well castigate the police for their lack of professionalism in pursuing their case. The detective who picked up Jef's discarded bag did so with his bare hands, thereby contaminating potential evidence with his own prints. Even worse, another detective did the same thing when handling Costello's gun at the night club at the finale of the story, Again, no safeguard against putting another set of fingerprints on a potential murder weapon. The bigger puzzle of course, and one we have no answer for, is why Jef emptied his weapon prior to entering Martey's for a final confrontation with the witness who lied. One must likely consider Costello's mental status as on the verge of melting down, contrary to everything we knew and felt about the guy as the story progressed. But even with my criticisms, the film has a way of engaging the viewer in Jef Costello's nourish existence and the police procedural that runs through it's paces to track down a killer. A frightening aspect of that investigation occurred when the Commissioner (François Périer) stated his intent to snare Jef by threatening on and off again girlfriend Jane (Nathalie Delon, Alain Delon's wife at the time) with "The truth is not what you say. It's what I say". By the story's conclusion, the Commissioner does have his way with the truth, but considering my earlier observations, it didn't come as much of a surprise.

bigverybadtom This is not intended to be a run-of-the-mill gangster flick. Note that gangsters are people who commit their crimes and then live the high life in their off-hours. But Jef Costello, the title character, is a contract killer, but we see right away that he has no life out of doing his jobs, smoking cigarettes, living in a shabby apartment with a caged bird, not even having any social life. He even keeps a stony face, except in several moments of the movie where he lets emotions leak through. He is a lone wolf in more ways than one.He is hired to murder a nightclub owner in his office, and in doing so, is seen by a number of people, including a black woman whom he meets in a hallway. Yet when he and dozens of other possible suspects are arrested (the Parisian police would do all that for one homicide?), a couple of witnesses identify him, but others do not-including the black woman who clearly saw him. He is released, but when he meets his employers for payment, they try and fail to assassinate him. (They later admit to Jef that they mistakenly had thought he was about to betray them.) Jef even returns to the nightclub...the idea being that the witnesses there deliberately turned a blind eye to his action. The police try to press potential witnesses to no avail, probably because the police are not entirely sympathetic themselves. (This movie was made just before the 1968 Paris riots after all.) This is meant to be an existentialist, artistic movie, and it is not entirely clear why Jef does as he does. The abrupt ending only serves to add to the confusion.

Mike Smith "Nothing to say?" "Not with a gun on me." "Is that a principle?" "A habit."This film was directed brilliantly by Melville, who deals away with expository dialogue, action set-pieces and any semblance of a backstory. Not a second of this film is wasted with such trifles, the story is instead told through character actions and not through words (the first 10 minutes of the film are actually wordless).Our protagonist is Jef Costello (Alain Delon), a killer for hire, who has got wearing a fedora down to almost an exact science. He is hard as nails, cool as ice and suave as hell. The story follows him as he judiciously establishes himself an alibi, kills a club owner, is then taken in by the police, slips through a lineup, gets betrayed by his employers and is then stalked through a dreary Paris by the police and his employers alike, all the while realizing his own plan to take revenge.Melville's Paris always looks like it's either about to rain or it just did (when it's not actually raining). Both interiors and exteriors are perpetually drenched in grays and blues. Melville drains the entire film of color much in the same way that he drains his characters of words, that way both Paris and Jef feel cold, solitary and distant.Le Samourai is expertly crafted, effortlessly stylish and, I think, definitely worth seeing.

851222 Greetings from Lithuania."Le samouraï" (1967) is a very solid suspense thriller. While the story is very simple, craftsmanship of this movie is so good that you won't lose anything if invest 1 h 42 min of your lifetime into this picture, it is worth it. It is flawlessly directed film, director i think was a true star of this movie. Scenes aren't rushed, everything looks clear and involving. Cienmatography as well as editing were also very solid. While i lost a bit interesting into plot in the middle of the movie, nevertheless i enjoyed this picture.Overall, although made in 1967 "Le samouraï" doesn't look or feel aged, good thrillers don't age and this is a very solid one.