Le samouraï

The ultimate gangster Noir, Le Samourai is a film of remarkable intelligence and immense visual style. Sparse in dialog and driven by character, its subdued colour palettes, subtle jazz-infused score and the rigid, romanticised code of honour that its protagonist lives by define a mythology of cool, as he exacts each hit with calculating and meticulous detail. Alain Delon plays the hitman in Melville's ode to cool.