I'm intrigued by the number of reviews for this film that declare it perfect and the epitome of cool. For a cold, methodical assassin, I thought Jef Costello (Alain Delon) made at least three unforced errors that brought about his eventual downfall. The first and most obvious was when he established his identity with the night club's pianist (Cathy Rosier) by staring her down following the murder of owner Martey. Then, when he was asked by the police to accompany them out of the private card game, Jef automatically went for his coat and hat, which would have been identifying characteristics during the police line-up. Why not just leave them there? And finally, he dumped the bag containing his bloody bandages right out in the street, by this time cognizant of the fact that he was under surveillance by the French police as a murder suspect. So where does this idea come from that he was a consummate professional who was a dozen moves ahead of his adversaries, and never made any mistakes? While I'm at it, I might as well castigate the police for their lack of professionalism in pursuing their case. The detective who picked up Jef's discarded bag did so with his bare hands, thereby contaminating potential evidence with his own prints. Even worse, another detective did the same thing when handling Costello's gun at the night club at the finale of the story, Again, no safeguard against putting another set of fingerprints on a potential murder weapon. The bigger puzzle of course, and one we have no answer for, is why Jef emptied his weapon prior to entering Martey's for a final confrontation with the witness who lied. One must likely consider Costello's mental status as on the verge of melting down, contrary to everything we knew and felt about the guy as the story progressed. But even with my criticisms, the film has a way of engaging the viewer in Jef Costello's nourish existence and the police procedural that runs through it's paces to track down a killer. A frightening aspect of that investigation occurred when the Commissioner (François Périer) stated his intent to snare Jef by threatening on and off again girlfriend Jane (Nathalie Delon, Alain Delon's wife at the time) with "The truth is not what you say. It's what I say". By the story's conclusion, the Commissioner does have his way with the truth, but considering my earlier observations, it didn't come as much of a surprise.

I mistakenly ticked this French film off in the checklist of my book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was lucky to find it, make this tick count and watch the film, I was really looking forward to it, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob Le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler)). Basically in Paris, Jef Costello (Rocco and His Brothers' Alain Delon) is a professional hit-man, a perfectionist who works under contract who always carefully plans his murders and never gets caught, while his personal life is solitary and lonely, he has no friends whatsoever. Costello's latest assignment is to assassinate the owner of a nightclub, he is successful in killing his target, but is accidentally seen by club pianist Valerie (Cathy Rosier). The police only have a description of what the culprit was wearing, a hat and a trench coat, to work with, Costello is picked up by the police and onstage as part of a lineup, among other men wearing the same clothing, the investigation is led by determined Police Inspector (The Nights of Cabiria's François Périer). The witnesses dismiss the other suspects, only Valérie recognises Costello in the lineup, but she lies that she did not see him, Costello is released also because he has set up an alibi with Jan Lagrange (Natalie Delon). Costello collects the money for killing the club owner, but his employer attempts t kill him for his mistake in getting caught, the Police Inspector puts together a team of undercover agents to follow Costello, as he believes him to be the culprit, the men follow him through the Paris Metro, but the underground labyrinth allows Costello to escape. Costello is determined to be paid for his killing job, and get revenge on the shadowy businessman who hired him, he is also careful to stay one step ahead of the Police Inspector. In the end the decision Costello makes bring him surprising results, he turns up at the nightclub, making no effort to hide himself, he confronts Valérie and points a gun at her, but gunshots are heard, and Costello collapses dead, it is revealed that Costello had emptied his gun before entering the club. Also starring Jacques Leroy as the Gunman, Jean-Pierre Posier as Olivier Rey, Michel Boisrond as Wiener and Robert Favart as the Barman. Delon gives a fantastic performance as the ultimate professional in his preparation and craftsmanship, this works as a great stylish character-study, it is kind of like a classic film noir, there is very little dialogue, only in the necessary scenes, and the acting is subtle, this adds to the nervy atmosphere, it is a most worthwhile thriller. Very good!

This is not intended to be a run-of-the-mill gangster flick. Note that gangsters are people who commit their crimes and then live the high life in their off-hours. But Jef Costello, the title character, is a contract killer, but we see right away that he has no life out of doing his jobs, smoking cigarettes, living in a shabby apartment with a caged bird, not even having any social life. He even keeps a stony face, except in several moments of the movie where he lets emotions leak through. He is a lone wolf in more ways than one.He is hired to murder a nightclub owner in his office, and in doing so, is seen by a number of people, including a black woman whom he meets in a hallway. Yet when he and dozens of other possible suspects are arrested (the Parisian police would do all that for one homicide?), a couple of witnesses identify him, but others do not-including the black woman who clearly saw him. He is released, but when he meets his employers for payment, they try and fail to assassinate him. (They later admit to Jef that they mistakenly had thought he was about to betray them.) Jef even returns to the nightclub...the idea being that the witnesses there deliberately turned a blind eye to his action. The police try to press potential witnesses to no avail, probably because the police are not entirely sympathetic themselves. (This movie was made just before the 1968 Paris riots after all.) This is meant to be an existentialist, artistic movie, and it is not entirely clear why Jef does as he does. The abrupt ending only serves to add to the confusion.

The film starts with a silent (almost) ten minute sequence showing a man getting out of bed, stealing another man's car, getting the license plates removed, going to a woman's house and finally, killing a man.What we find out is that this is all a meticulous plan by Jef Costello, a hit-man. This isn't an evil person, however, just one who's personality (or lack there of) makes it so that being a hit-man is the only thing he CAN do. Jef is cold and clinical not only because he has to be, but because that's simply the way he is. He seems emotionally detached and distant, seemingly using people simply as tools to get through the incredibly lonely life he has become a part of. In fact in many scenes where we believe he has some genuine emotion, we seem to be proved wrong, such as when we find out he is not just keeping his pet bird as a pet, but an alarm to warn him of invaders. However, throughout the whole film we see this side of him, but we sense he is not an evil person. He doesn't kill for the joy of killing, but because he is a hit-man and that is what he does. It seems to be the only possible path he could've taken in life. Later, in a scene involving a man invading Jef's house for reasons I won't get into right now, he ends up with a gun pointed at his face. But when he reverses the situation and ends up with the gun in his hand, once he gets the information he needs he doesn't kill the man, although he has no reason not to. It is at this moment when we first begin to see emotion in him. Later when he is fumbling to find the right key for a stolen car in a VERY intense scene, we see genuine fear in his face. In fact, we even find out through clever editing that Jef never kills a man before the other man is about to shoot him. We even find out that Jef actually cares deeply about a woman that he only seemed to be using for an alibi earlier in the film when he shows up at her house for no other reason than to tell her "everything will be OK" as a sort of goodbye before he goes off to kill the man that has been trying to kill him. Once he is done with that, the cops are still on his tail and he knows that he has no hope, so he goes back to the bar where he killed the man in the first scene of the movie. He overtly puts on white gloves, walks up to the woman that betrayed him earlier in the film and pulls out a handgun only to be shot down. However, it is revealed this handgun was unloaded, showing he had no intention of killing her because he can't bring himself to kill a person that is not threatening him, while also showing this was a passive suicide not only to stop the police and criminals from harassing the only woman he cares about, but also showing the woman at the bar what she'd done to him by betraying him.I rambled a lot in this one and I didn't even have time to touch on everything, but the point is this: fantastic character study, incredibly tense thriller, amazingly directed, acted, edited, etc..., and perfect soundtrack. Has the meticulous care of the main character. Pretty much perfect in general.