Le samouraï
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville • 1967 • France, Italy
Starring Alain Delon, François Périer, 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.
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Le samouraï
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville • 1967 • France, Italy
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays a contract killer with samurai instincts. A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture--with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology--mav...
Extras
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Ginette Vincendeau on LE SAMOURAÏ
“Melville on Melville,” Rui Nogueira’s 1971 book of interviews with Jean-Pierre Melville, was for decades the only English-language work devoted to the director’s films. In 2003, cinema historian Ginette Vincendeau added “Jean-Pierre Melville, An American in Paris.” In this 2005 video interview, ...
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Rui Nogueira on LE SAMOURAÏ
“Melville on Melville,” Rui Nogueira’s 1971 book of interviews with Jean-Pierre Melville, was for decades the only English-language work devoted to the director’s films. In 2003, cinema historian Ginette Vincendeau added “Jean-Pierre Melville, An American in Paris.” In this 2005 video interview, ...
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Marlon James on LE SAMOURAÏ
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The Lineup
Director Jean-Pierre Melville and actors Alain Delon, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, and François Périer discuss the filmmaker’s style, acting, and LE SAMOURAÏ, in this collection of archival interviews. These clips, from the Institut national de l’audiovisuel, Paris, were originally broadcast on ...
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Melville-Delon: D’honneur et de nuit
The following short documentary, directed by Olivier Bohler in 2011, explores the close friendship between director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Alain Delon, and their iconic collaboration LE SAMOURAÏ. It features interviews with Melville's nephews Laurent Grousset and Rémy Grumbach, critic Rui...
