Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
by Jean-Pierre Melville
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alain Delon, Cathy Rosier, Fran?ois P?rier, Jacques Leroy, Nathalie DelonDirector: Jean-Pierre Melville
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Henri Deca?
Writer: Jean-Pierre Melville
Editor: Monique Bonnot
Producer: Eug?ne L?picier
Producer: Raymond Borderie
Writer: Georges Pellegrin
Writer: Joan McLeod
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-10-25
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Artists International
Movie Reviews of Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: genius noir--not for the impatient
Summary: 5 Stars
Melville creates a fantastically slow-paced and visually stunning neo-noir thriller about Jef Costello (played by Alain Delon), a brilliant but socially broken hired killer. Delon is as cool and slick as Steve McQueen at his best, but prettier and lonelier. Those who are looking for lots of running, fighting, and explosions should stay far away from this one, and Melville never includes dialogue if he can get by without it. The first line of the film comes more than ten minutes after the opening, but the story is about solitude, isolation, and disconnection. Delon's then-wife Nathalie plays the ethereally beautiful Jane Lagrange, Jef's part-time lover and alibi. If you love smart, patient cinema, and don't mind subtitles, you should definitely check this out.
Also, the Criterion features, including a well-assembled booklet, are well worth the price.
Summary of Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays blue-eyed Jef Costello, a fedora- and trench-coat-wearing contract killer with samurai instinctsAlain Delon is the coolest killer to hit the screen, a film noir loner for the modern era, in Jean-Pierre Melville's austere 1967 French crime classic. Delon's impassive hit man, Jef Costello, is the ultimate professional in an alienated world of glass and metal. On his latest contract, however, he lets a witness live--a charming jazz pianist, Valerie (Cathy Rosier), who neglects to identify him in the police lineup. When Costello survives an assassination attempt by his employers, he carefully plots his next moves as cops and criminals close in and he prepares for one last job. Melville meticulously details every move by Costello and the police in fascinating wordless sequences, from Costello's preparations for his first hit to the cops' exhaustive efforts to tail Jef as he lines up his last; and his measured pace creates an otherworldly ambiance, an uneasy calm on the verge of shattering. Costello remains a cipher, a zen killer whose fa?ade begins to crack as the world seems to be collapsing in on him, exposing the wound-up psyche hidden behind his blank face. Melville rethinks film noir in modern terms, as an existential crime drama in soft, somber color and sleek images (courtesy of cinematographer extraordinaire Henri Deca?). Le Samoura? inspired two pseudo-remakes, Walter Hill's Driver and John Woo's Killer, but neither film comes close to the compelling austerity and meticulous detail of Melville's cult masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker
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