Le Samouraï
Opens September 6, 2024
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.
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.
- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Principal Cast: Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier
- Country: France, Italy
- Year: 1967
- Running Time: 105 min.
- Producer: Raymond Borderie, Eugène Lépicier
- Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Melville, Georges Pellegrin
- Cinematographers: Henri Decaë
- Editors: Monique Bonnot, Yolande Maurette
- Music: François de Roubaix
- Language: French
- US Distributor: Janus