In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon (Purple Noon) 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 armour of fedora and trench coat can protect him.
An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville (Army of Shadows), Le samouraïis a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone warrior mythology.
Extras
• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • Interviews with Rui Nogueira, editor of Melville on Melville, and Ginette Vincendeau, author of Jean Pierre Melville: An American in Paris • Archival interviews with Melville and actors Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, and Cathy Rosier • Melville-Delon: D’Honneur et de nuit (2011), a short documentary exploring the friendship between the director and the actor and their iconic collaboration on this film
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Thomson. The Blu-ray also features an appreciation by filmmaker John Woo and excerpts from Melville on Melville
