Le Samourai

Jef Costello, the quiet unsmiling stranger who ever so slowly seeps into our awareness in the opening scene is an assasin for hire. We see him first smoking in bed.

Alain Delon as Jef Costello is an iconic portrayal. From the way he wears his trenchcoat to the intensity of his engagement with the caged bird in his apartment, he paints his character in stroke by indelible stroke. Yet throughout the movie he never reveals a single emotion. You're left compulsively obsessed as to what makes him tick.

About the movie. Paris is not at it's most interesing here. The lighting and composition were elegant throughout. The script was complicated enough to be interesting but not complex enough to keep it from dragging in parts. Melville's direction however has a touch of surety about the way he builds this movie to it's inevitable denouement.