![Poster for Le Samouraï](https://s3.amazonaws.com/nightjarprod/content/uploads/sites/261/2024/04/04112655/5Fa6o5nfUPEatQ9b3OwEvdEdR7T.jpg)
Le Samouraï
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Run Time: 105 min. Rating: Not Rated Release Year: 1967 Language: French
Starring: Alain Delon, Cathy Rosier, François Périer, Michel Boisrond, Nathalie Delon
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. 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.