LE SAMOURAI (Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring Alain Delon, Nathalie Delon, Francois Perier)

If Nikita was the ultimate ’80’s killer-thriller, an explosive, feminist comic strip, 1967’s Le Samourai clearly belongs to another era. The plot of this earlier French tale of a hired assassin is just as pulpy in its almost nonsensical construction, but the camerawork is restrained, the colour code a drizzly blue, the performances tight-lipped and emotionless.

Le Samourai is almost the last word on existential cool: the stony faced hit-man Alain Delon existing in the moment, apparently never contemplating the outside world until one act of kindness towards him breaks his resolve and creates his downfall. Jean-Pierre Melville uses the imagery of ’40’s Hollywood gangster movies, but this is a quintessentially French film, a cinema of restraint and grace even when dealing with bloody murder.