*50th anniversary screening*
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
France | 1967 | Fiction | 105 min
Source: Criterion
An excuse is never needed to screen a Jean-Pierre Melville film, but this year is a particularly apt occasion. 2017 marks not only the 50th anniversary of Melville’s masterpiece, but also the 100th anniversary of the birth of the director known as the godfather of the French New Wave. Le Samouraï stars the dashingly cool Alain Delon as a modern-day contract killer who lives by the ancient Japanese samurai code. When a hit goes wrong, he’s targeted by both the police and the shadowy group that hired him. Melville’s direction mirrors the icy restraint of his antihero: not a shot or camera movement feels out of place. The cat-and-mouse game reaches its apex during an extended sequence in the Paris Metro which is on the short list of the greatest chase scenes ever filmed. Often imitated but never duplicated, Le SamouraÏ is essential viewing. ~LB
Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Delon