Le Samouraï

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 slick armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director JeanPierre 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. (Dir. by Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967/1972 American release, France, in French with English subtitles, 101 mins., Not Rated)