The Cinematheque

Imported 35mm Print

“The closest thing to a perfect movie that I have ever seen.”

John Woo

Existential, austere, and eternally cool, Jean-Pierre Melville’s neo-noir masterpiece is, for many, the defining Melville film. Alain Delon is Jef Costello, a laconic, fedora-capped contract killer who abides by the code of the bushido. After a meticulously plotted hit on a club owner leaves behind eyewitnesses, Jef is pegged as the perp by a tenacious cop, but walks thanks to an ironclad alibi. The assassin’s anonymous employer, meanwhile, determines he’s too great a liability to live. Delon, already an arthouse staple (and heartthrob) for roles in classics by Clément, Visconti, and Antonioni, cemented his celebrity with this iconic performance. The affectless anti-heroes of John Woo’s The Killer, Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog, and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive are acknowledged offspring.