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Alain Delon, Natalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, François Périer, Michel Boisrond ... see more see more... , George H. Billy , Robert Favart , Roger Fradet , Jack E. Leonard , André Thorent , Catherine Jourdan , Catalano , Georges Casati , Carlo Nell , Robert Rondo , Jacques Deschamps , Nathalie Delon

Long considered a classic of European film noir, this existential gangster drama from French director Jean-Pierre Melville was released in the United States only in a severely truncated, re-edited, an... read more read more...d overdubbed version entitled The Godson. Thirty years after its initial public airing, Le Samourai (1967) finally saw a limited American release in its intended form. Alain Delon stars as Jef Costello, a professional Parisian assassin-for-hire who, by nature of his work's solitary demands, has no friends. Although he is loved by Jane Lagrange (Natalie Delon, the star's real-life wife), Costello knows that Jane already has a lover. After he successfully wipes out a nightclub owner at the behest of his boss, Costello discovers that he was seen by the club's pianist, Valerie (Cathy Rosier). Although he survives a police lineup thanks to a lie offered up by the fearless Valerie, Costello's alibi disintegrates rapidly and his shadowy employer takes out a contract on him. As he seeks revenge on his betrayer, Costello must also stay one step ahead of a wily, determined superintendent (Francois Perier). Melville's film influenced several other filmmakers and projects, most notably director John Woo's The Killer (1989). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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PG, 1 hr. 43 min.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Melville

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DVD Release Date: October 25, 2005

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Flixster Reviews (1,121)

  • groaningbitch
    April 28, 2012
    groaningbitch
    one attribute from french new wave cinema is its bona-fide homage to american film noir during the forties meanwhile rejoices its burgeoning postmodernity saturated by the gaudy hues of technicolor. what most cinephiles who are intoxicated by swooning charm of french new wave fai... read morel to see is that "le samourai" is a homage to forties "this gun for hire" devoid of americanistic patriotism, immersed in its sheer apolitical aesthetics. thus the social criticism within the forties american noir is lobotomized and continues to be rejuvenated through the stylism of hedonistic sixties and seventies.

    alain delon's enigmatic first scene resembles alan ladd's first scene in "this gun for hire". ladd's character in "hire" is raven who is an aloof thug doublecrossed by his employer, who turns out to be a national traitor selling nuclear weapon to japan. raven here is a de-romanticized romantic hero who pledges his devotion to veronica lake, who would eventually just return to the bosom of her policeman boyfriend (unrequited love). but the sixties raven, in the country of amour - france, is an iceberg casanova whose sultry gaze (as well as the shadow of his gorgeous eye-lashes) could emulate lauren bacall of "the big sleep"..in other words, he's quite capable to persuade his witness of murder into forging his faux innocence while he's got a prostitute-girlfriend who's willing to risk jail-sentence to create evidence of absence for him.

    (spoiler)
    what is neglected or constantly misperceived is the ending where delon shows up in a public jazz-club to finish off his last case of killing, paying the woman who forges his faux-innocence with chilly ingratitude as if his killerly duty is absolutely imperative. the denouement would be, he purposely appears there to be publicly executed by the police almost immediately just like a moth accelerates his doom to be consumed by the fire. the crucial detail is often ignored by the audience: he already empties the bullets of his gun before he goes to pull off his last kill. and he makes all the efforts to escape the subway siege from the policemen just to bid his last farewell to his prostitute-girlfriend. what hides beneath the cool iceberg is a flow of incorrigible passion (so hot and cold in the same time!) gravitated by the existential motor of fate as he consummates his utmost love in the form of death.

    "le samourai" would be the most romantic gangster-noir picture which isn't about any power-wrestling feud between men but a microscopic confrontation of one's ultimate doom while perishing within the rosy fragments of romance, which reminds me of a james-dean quote: "live as if you're going to live forever; dream as if you're going to die tomorrow."

    the androgynously beautiful alain delon shall be the superb embodiment of noirish romanticism: a feminine-faced man with a hard-boiled masculine ego. how could you help yourself not to love him?!
  • axadntpron
    January 14, 2012
    axadntpron
    At his core, Melville seems to have a real passion for ice-cool crime thrillers. While Army of Shadows showcases his ability to craft really insightful pieces on the human condition, this film has Melville flexing his noir muscle. The story is thin, but the style is thick. Half o... read moref the film just seems to be the protagonist, donning a trench coat and fedora, soberly advancing through the city. When he is not walking, Melville juxtaposes the intense and often unscrupulous investigation of the police with Delon's ritualistic down time. Melville just seems to revel in these two disparate ways of living and doesn't try to convolute the story by adding other dimensions. Melville is just obviously comfortable with this type of thriller and it is nice to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
  • gokhale1
    March 18, 2011
    gokhale1
    The film opens with a long shot of a small apartment and the background noise consists of the continuous tweeting of a bird. A man is lying on the bed, smoking a cigarette, although he isn't the focus of this frame. This shot occupies the screen for some time and throughout the a... read moreppearance of the title cards. A quote appears apparently taken from a so-called "Book of the Samurai"...." There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai unless it is perhaps that of the tiger in the jungle...". Our protagonist is introduced to us...he is in total solitude, all right. This neat beginning sets the somber tone of what's to follow.

    Alain Delon (uber cool) is Jeff Costello, a hitman who kills people for a living. He is a man of a few words, is almost expressionless, walks around with a coat and a hat. But his methods are quite meticulous...he tries his best to remain inconspicuous in the public view (just like in the opening frame..inconspicuous to us audiences!). He is a loner, except for about a couple of people who are close to him, but who he needs as accomplices to support himself with a perfect alibi or change the license plates of the cars he steals in order to get to a place to carry out a task he is hired to accomplish. He sees himself as a perfectionist, someone who never fails. The perfectionism reflects in his lifestyle too... with neatly lined up bottles of water and packs of cigarettes in the room. He also seems to be a man of principles. "Le Samourai" chronicles the happenings over one fateful weekend of Costello's life when his perfectionism slightly fails him during one of his tasks. It triggers a chain of events which lead him into a situation in which he can trust no one and reinforces the fact, that he is indeed, friendless.


    "Le Samourai" is one of the finest films (or perhaps THE finest film) centering around a hitman. It is also probably one of its kinds in the genre. Yes, the protagonist is a hitman, but do not expect any action-packed car chases, plenty of fast paced action or anything of that sort. What we instead get, thankfully, is a very restrained, subtle and immensely absorbing picture which creates magic with mood and style. For the first several minutes and during other times in the film there is almost no dialog. Yet, writer-director Jean-Pierre Melville's lucid narrative style makes for very engaging viewing with each scene written with so much dexterity, we almost don't miss the dialog! Moreover, despite the controlled, minimalist approach to story-telling, Jean-Pierre Melville creates an atmosphere of nail-biting tension throughout the 100 minutes length of the film. Not one scene frame out of place or unnecessary. Moving on through the film, Melville introduces some clever twists which lead the film to its thrilling climax. Certain key plot elements are never revealed to us audiences, and hence the reasoning behind some of Jeff's motivations and subsequent actions are not entirely clear. We are supposed to tie some of the ends on our own, and when we do, we find ourselves drawing a very satisfying conclusion to a very powerful story. The taking of the final scene is perhaps the only part in the film that slightly undermines the otherwise flawless screenplay, and I wish the filmmakers had considered shooting a slightly altered version of the scene, but that is but a tiny spot on an otherwise immaculate canvas.


    Alain Delon, the lead actor, shines in a excellent underplaying of Jeff Costello, the brooding anti-hero of this venture and perhaps one of the finest characters ever written for film. His charismatic screen presence combined with cool mannerisms make for an awe-inspiring performance indeed.

    The other fine performance comes from the dude on the opposite side of the law, the Police Superintendent, played by François Périer, who finds himself on a never-ending trail of the assassin that is Jeff!

    The pretty ladies Cathy Rosier as the nightclub pianist, Valerie and Nathalie Delon Jeff's alibi girlfriend Jane don't have much to do except look pretty. The original music by François de Roubaix is superb and a perfect fit for the film's atmosphere.


    Jean-Pierre Melville directs with his magical touch and gives us a film which is a stylish as well as powerful crime thriller which merits repeated viewings.

    Very highly recommended!
  • romy861
    November 14, 2010
    romy861
    This has a similar plot to the recent film "The American", but I have to say I vastly preferred it. This is well shot and the scenes of 60's France really work well with the story. Though the character here is not especially likeable either, he does retain his mystery all the w... read moreay through making this quite a good little thriller. Acting is excellent also.
  • flixsterman
    March 7, 2010
    flixsterman
    A fantastic bit of neo-noir that builds it's momentum so subtly one barely notices it's acceleration. Well acted and exquisitely scored.
  • ebs90
    December 25, 2009
    ebs90

    Le Samourai is a masterpiece. Now that we got that out of the way, I suppose it's unnecessary to even say that it's a MUST watch and that it single-handedly outdoes most of the other French New Wave films I've seen so far.



    Jean Pierre Melville's film is a homage to the Am... read moreerican noir: its stylings and its characters. And it's probably better than most of those films. It's hypnotizing in a way that truly transcends an explanation -everything is just right, every element falls into place harmoniously in every scene: set, lighting, score, cinematography. And I mean as harmoniously as such a dark film can allow. Most importantly, in Le Samourai the quality of the technical aspects and the precision of each montage is on par with the quality of the performances. Alain Delon is larger than life as Jef Costello.

    Jef is a hired assassin who lives a life not different from that of a samourai... as Delon said once during an interview, he is a modern-day samourai. He's lonely -although it's unclear whether this is because he chose to shun society, or because he was shunned in account of his strange, reclusive nature-. Maybe he chooses to be alone. It is as though his job is his one motivation. He never expresses feeling. He is self-sufficient. He is helplessly committed to the twisted honor of his profession. Alain Delon's performance is stunning: there is always something behind his cold blue eyes, and we know it's there, but it's perfectly collected and repressed. His countenance never changes, only when it absolutely must, and then the impact of these changes is awe-inspiring. There is an aggressive masculinity to his role, but Delon himself is very feminine. He's an assassin, but he's beautiful. His screen presence is everything. Without that game of isolation and charisma, ugliness and beauty, Le Samourai wouldn't be nearly as remarkable. It's a film driven by one performance. One perfect performance, backed by a script very much in tune -although, at that, extraordinary- with the usual French approach to gangster films: one that goes beyond the plotting and the fedoras, into the minds of the criminals. Tortured men, driven by existential desperation rather than, or in equal measure as, greed.



    The rest of the film's success is its styilization. When watching Le Samourai, you breathe mood -mood -mood. The cinematography is wonderful; Paris is seen in washed-out blues, beiges and whites. Every character is dressed and carries itself with flair. Every man blowing out cigarette smoke is perfectly framed, perfectly half-hidden in the dark, all movements perfectly orchestrated. The atmosphere is almost reverential towards the heaviness of the subject, and melancholy in accordance to the main character's self-constructed doom.

    The final (and probably the most important) charm of Le Samourai is the character of Jef Costello himself. He has a compromise, based purely on principle, that would be unthinkable in an era in which people flee from committment. He has chosen a revolting line of work that he elevates with the odd dignity with which he performs every little task. He never gives up on solitude. He never bows to anyone. He believes the ethics of his profession are to be taken seriously.



    ...And he knows that he can't succeed in the modern world by acting that way. Principles, for whatever purpose, are out of date. He knows he's doomed to fail, and so do we, ever since the first shot. So the entire film is really how he walks towards his destiny, understanding that he can't escape it. And everything ends in the most beautiful and sad way possible.

    Le Samourai is free for interpretation. Its content is just as ambiguous as it must be in order to stay within its poetic context. I could never stop praising it. Melville found the way to do what I suppose filmmakers all seek: create a film in which images, colors, gestures, decisions, what happens behind the faces of the characters, can convey a message, and tell a story. He doesn't need words, he doesn't make use of explanations. It's breathtaking. I can't recommend it enough.
  • ceWEBrity
    May 25, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    Alain Delon is flaming hot sex. Also, this is a knockout example of communicating a lot while saying very little in cinema terms; as soon as I finished it I felt like I could talk about it for half an hour. The unusual ending just helps to sell this depth, because you know that a... read more man as calculating and thoughtful as Jef couldn't have done this seemingly random act for no reason at all. The pacing is a little thick, but the fantastic editing and cinematography help to alleviate this. Every frame feels memorable and deliberate, and it helps you to burn the film into your mind all the more.

    Le Samourai is a piece best viewed analytically, a treasure trove of filmic ability and narrative depth that really will give any cinephile something to chew on. Incredibly impressive work.
  • sanjurosamurai
    April 13, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    an interesting story about a hitman in paris. the stoic nature of the film was well crafted and the actors were great. a film limited on diologue, the movement of the main character and the intrigue into his actions drives the film. a true classic, this film doesnt grab me aft... read moreer two viewings like it does most, but it is still a great film that is the definition of the stylized approach of one of my favorite directors in history. while down the list a little for me this is often considered by many to be melvilles best film.
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    January 30, 2008
    DragonEyeMorrison
    Everyone from Besson to Woo and Jarmush, from Leon to The Killer and more recently Kim Ji Woon's A Bittersweet Life own a lot to Melville's Le Samourai. One of the most influential films ever made, probably the first sucessfull fusion of eastern and western references, from noir ... read moreto samurai flicks. The "lonely-cool-cold-as-ice-killer" prototype becomes an icon in Alain Deloin's feet.

    And for fuck sake, remove that "Godson" title.
  • pier007
    November 4, 2007
    pier007
    Alain Delon plays a cool, well dressed hitman who travels through the colourful sixties paris underworld following a code of silence. superb art design and overall feeling of a lonely, austere way of living.

View All Le Samouraï (The Godson) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Colin Covert
October 8, 2009
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Delon's inscrutable presence adds to an unnerving atmosphere of anticipation. You feel that something bad could come crashing into the frame at any second. And you would be right. Full Review

Janet Maslin
May 20, 2003
Janet Maslin, New York Times

[Melville's] style remains haunting and elegantly spare, just right for the kind of hit man who lives in silence, in bare and colorless surroundings, with a lonely caged bird. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
January 1, 2000
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Le samourai expresses a kind of loneliness to be sure, but it's that of a teenage male dreaming about Hollywood movies and their accoutrements -- penthouse apartments, acerbic cops, melancholy city st... Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

One of the pleasures of Le Samourai is to realize how complicated the plot has grown, in its flat, deadpan way. Full Review

Edward Guthmann
January 1, 2000
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

To each his own. Filmmakers as diverse as Quentin Tarantino and Paul Schrader were influenced by Melville, and Hong Kong action director John Woo calls the film 'the closest to a perfect movie that I ... Full Review

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

It combines stylish direction, an intelligent script, first-rate performances, and overpowering atmosphere into one of the most tense and absorbing thrillers ever to reach the screen. Full Review

Jeff Millar
January 1, 2000
Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle

Melville is much more interested in procedures than action. The film is so stripped down that we learn as much as we need to know about Jef in the film's first 15 minutes.

Jay Antani
August 17, 2010
Jay Antani, Cinema Writer

an enjoyably stylish entry in the French crime film tradition, but a decidedly minor one Full Review

August 29, 2006
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A major work from a highly influential director -- Walter Hill and John Woo have both taken a lesson or two -- yet one whose films have been, until now, inexplicably neglected in the U.S. Full Review

Derek Adams
June 24, 2006
Derek Adams, Time Out

Melville's film had a major influence in Hollywood. Full Review

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