Le Samouraï (1967)

14 September 2019

Le Samouraï (1967) , is a crime drama about an assassin in Paris. Alain Delon stars as the modern day killer, and Jean-Pierre Melville directs the story with a Paris backdrop. With a 1h41m runtime it's an impressively tight film, and no scene feels superfluous. The story breaks down the crime with a technical quality reminiscent to M (1931, 10/10), but without the political motivations of Fritz Lang interfering. The acting is solid but subdued, without a lot of dialogue bloating the story. The minimalism adds a level of timelessness to the story, although the fedora, swing clubs and simplistic police tracking equipment definitely date the film to a very specific time. It's a nice film with an unexpected ending - I'd recommend it highly and I'm glad I picked it up. 10/10