Beautifully directed and enigmatically performed, Jean-Pierre Meville's coolly calculated crime drama is an austere masterpiece. Perhaps one of the most influential character creations in modern filmmaking (Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Hill's The Driver, Corbjin's The American all clearly owning a debt), Le Samouraï follows Alian Delon's Jef Costello; a cold and stotic contract killer who lives by a personal code of bushido (book of the samurai). What Meville's film does so perfectly is establish a sense of space throughout. The ravishing lights of Paris, the claustrophobic apartments and the shadow-soaked backstreets have equal identity and purpose to Costello; rendering them allies. With his furrowed brow under his trilby and his sleuthing upturned trench coat, Delon's ambiguous anti-hero is an inspired filmic icon who is a joy to spend time with.