Criterion Collection: Le Samourai [DVD] [1971] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

One of my top ten favourite films of all time - the film looks wonderful and Alain Delon as the lone hired killer has got to be one of the few times in any film where you feel any sympathy for him at the end. Paris in 1967 is beautifully invoked in light greys and greens, a perfect film in as the acting, photography and direction couldn't have been better.

The Moodiness is provided by the surly handsomeness of Alain Delon, here, as the Assassin. His trench-coat and hat, his piercing gaze and stylised posturing make him Mean. And the steady, majestic film-noir feel of Jean Pierre Melville's direction, with its muted colours, show a mellow, underside of Paris.

As Jef Costello, Delon carries out his deed in a jazz nightclub, but there are witnesses. He is subsequently picked up by the police and everything links him to the murder, except none of those called to bear witness do so and a false alibi from the lovely femme fatale, Jane, who it seems was played by Delon's wife, as her character is accredited to Nathalie Delon and according to IMDb have had a son, Anthony.

As we subtly learn, the witnesses in the Club are all in on the crime but of course, an assassin that might expose those who commissioned it, by being no. 1 suspect, are susceptible to a taste of their own medicine, shall we say? I'll leave the plot there, as it's enough for one to imagine the storylines linking them without giving anything away.

But, it's the cool complexity and smoothness of the direction, that's a textbook study of the routine police-work, which becomes riveting, in itself. Every frame counts, the angles, the backgrounds - not so much that it gets all too much or is flashy and never upstages the coolest hit-man since Humphrey Bogart. With the looks that even Paul Newman might envy, Delon eschews a steely fragility, he doesn't show it, but we sense it's there, at times. That's the quality of the acting for you.

The music, in particular, has that haunting, 'man alone' sort of theme, by Francois de Roubaix. Very Gallic, very French - the music makes you more intent and fits perfectly.

Now, to the Korean DVD. Shop around, that's all I can say, really, except perhaps my copy was a lot less than what's currently on offer. Apart from the DVD's writing, there's almost no giving away its origins. The menus are in English, though you do have to go into 'subtitles' and switch them from standard Korean. From then on, the quality is never left wanting.

Le Samourai is the ultimate in Jean Pierre Melville's essays on the gangster and his image, portraying a gun for hire-style assasin excellently played by the effortlessly cool Alain Delon. Every element of the film is near-perfect: the sparse, minimal style, the fantastic visuals - playing with stereotypical images of costumes, settings, Henri Decae's stunning cinematography, an awesome jazz score from Francois de Roubaix and an engaging noir-ish plot co-written by Melville. This film by one of France's ultimate auteurs is a clever and complex masterpiece.