My Cultural Diet

Alain Delon exudes cool in this stylish noir thriller about Jef Costello (Delon), a hitman who methodically carries out his jobs with precision and attention to detail. But when he’s seen after his most recent job and subsequently detained as a suspect, a shrewd police commissioner decides to start hounding Costello all over Paris. Meanwhile, his employers now consider him a liability and decide to tie up loose ends. If that plot sounds familiar, then it’s because Le Samouraï helped established the template for the “lone wolf” film; you can see its influence in such films as John Wick, The French Connection, and Heat while John Woo’s The Killer is essentially a remake (albeit with loads more gunplay). Le Samouraï can seem a bit on the glacial side, pacing-wise, but to be perfectly honest, I could easily watch two hours of Delon — for the record, one of the most handsome leading men to ever grace the screen — just meandering around Paris in his trenchcoat and fedora. Delon maintains an impassive exterior for most of the film. However, there are moments when his ice-blue eyes hint at the turmoil lurking just beneath his façade, which helps to explain his actions in the film’s final, relentless act.

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