Film Forum

France, 1967
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
With Alain Delon, Cathy Rosier
In French with English subtitles
Approx. 105 mins. 4K DCP restoration.

Alain Delon lies fully clothed in his monochromed apartment, then goes off to a day at the office: stealing a car, whacking a mec in a nightclub, creating an ironclad alibi, and outsmarting the cops. Two problems: his anonymous employers don’t trust him and he’s left a witness behind: jazz pianist Cathy Rosier.

Reviews

“The immaculate geometry of Alain Delon’s facial features is expanded into pictorial magnitude. Practically a silent film crystallized into minimalist gestures and eloquent pauses.”
– Mubi

“A RAVISHING BAUBLE. Stars Alain Delon in perhaps his definitive role… Exquisite color photography charged with steely grays and otherworldly smoothness… If you care about the possibilities of style you won’t want to miss LE SAMOURAÏ. Like nearly all of Melville’s work, it does what we expect movies to do: It takes us into a more magical world than our own.”
– John Powers, Vogue

“THE EPITOME OF FRENCH COOL.”
– Time Out

“MELVILLE’S MASTERPIECE.”
– The Village Voice

“In the opening shot, Jef is laid out on a bed, at one side of the frame, like the dreaming St. Ursula in Carpaccio’s famous painting from 1495. The only difference is that the blessed saint is not enjoying a slow Gitane. Eventually, Jef rises from his restful pose to don his coat and gray hat, standing before the mirror and running his fingers around the front of the brim to ensure that he looks sharp. This is not vanity; the sharpness is like a blade—a guarantee that his presence, and his skills, will slice into his environment at the most acute and most profitable angle.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“The closest thing to a perfect movie that I have ever seen.”
– John Woo

“The analysis of a schizophrenic by a paranoiac — because all creators are paranoiac.”
– Jean-Pierre Melville