Alain Delon

Average customer rating:

The epitome of 'Cool'
pretty noir but also very very pretentiously made
Le Boring
Full of Air
The darkest solitude possible

Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
Starring: Alain Delon , François Périer , Nathalie Delon , Cathy Rosier , and Jacques Leroy
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Point Blank

ASIN: B000AQKUG8
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Amazon.com

Alain Delon is the coolest killer to hit the screen, a film noir loner for the modern era, in Jean-Pierre Melville's austere 1967 French crime classic. Delon's impassive hit man, Jef Costello, is the ultimate professional in an alienated world of glass and metal. On his latest contract, however, he lets a witness live--a charming jazz pianist, Valerie (Cathy Rosier), who neglects to identify him in the police lineup. When Costello survives an assassination attempt by his employers, he carefully plots his next moves as cops and criminals close in and he prepares for one last job. Melville meticulously details every move by Costello and the police in fascinating wordless sequences, from Costello's preparations for his first hit to the cops' exhaustive efforts to tail Jef as he lines up his last; and his measured pace creates an otherworldly ambiance, an uneasy calm on the verge of shattering. Costello remains a cipher, a zen killer whose façade begins to crack as the world seems to be collapsing in on him, exposing the wound-up psyche hidden behind his blank face. Melville rethinks film noir in modern terms, as an existential crime drama in soft, somber color and sleek images (courtesy of cinematographer extraordinaire Henri Decaë). Le Samouraï inspired two pseudo-remakes, Walter Hill's Driver and John Woo's Killer, but neither film comes close to the compelling austerity and meticulous detail of Melville's cult masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker

Description

In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays blue-eyed Jef Costello, a fedora- and trench-coat-wearing contract killer with samurai instincts

Customer Reviews:

The epitome of 'Cool'.......2007-05-29

Delon at his coolest and best. The clothes, the hat, the cars. All scream '60's COOL'. This update(from the Japanese) of the lonely hitman, the outsider with few friends, has been a long time coming to DVD. Any fan of the French new wave, who has never caught this film, should see it immediately. There are many themes and influences that are later repeated in the American crime films of the 70's. The only reason that it does drop a star, is that is was a film very much of its time and place. As such, it should be viewed historically, and may disappoint fans of later, more violent, US and Japanese films in the same genre. Delon steals every scene by doing almost nothing. A masterclass in mimalism, and a good example for the later much wordier, and more character-driven pieces we are more used to. For the more mature movie buff, it's a must!

pretty noir but also very very pretentiously made.......2007-05-10

cat and mouse, hide and seek, the game was on but circled around and finished up with a no-way-out ending. the screenplay sometimes gave you a false hope that the whole thing might have turned out differently, but the french screenplay writers usually knew how to start a story with great scenario and plot, but they also got a problem: they never quite got the grip how to finish a story in the end. alain delon in this movie looked too stereotyped noir, very pretentiously cool with hat and windbreaker. you didn't feel any empathy or compassion about how he survived or not, because the movie itself was too 1 dimensional simple, lack of a strong dose of mystery. the hired assassin/hitman he played was just a too simple-minded gofer with a gun for hire. very appropriate title: 'the samurai', a servant (usually no brain needed) blindly serves to the rich and the powerful, no question asked, just like what the samurai did in ancient japan.

Le Boring.......2007-04-03

I think there was packaging or a sticker that compared this film to Pulp Fiction. As if. Beyond minor superficial similarities - I dont see it.

Le Samurai is one of the most boring films Ive watched recently without turning it off. In retrospect I wish I had turned it off or never wasted my time since the ending is so dull.

Imagine if breathless had a slightly more complicated plot, but the main character had no charisma. Or if Alphaville (the film not the treatment) was more 100 times more boring. Le Samurai makes Tokyo Drifter seem like a thrill ride. I was not impressed by this film on any level.

If you are into being bored. Or if your so freaking smart you can watch paint drying and fill it with significance, this is the film for you.

Full of Air.......2007-03-14

From the beginning the viewer expects a great film; the blank face of the main character, his silence, and his solitude prelude what seems is going to be a lot of excitement. We witness the daily chores of this seemingly cool (but liable to absurd) hired killer, we share his vital space, we follow him. He speaks hardly any word, he has no facial expression whatsoever... how cool. What kind of a man is this? Very interesting, you may think. Well, think not, because whatever he is underneath that handsome face is not the point of this film. The point is the facade itself. A big balloon filled with nothing but air and liable to explode any moment.

How the critics fell for this one does not amaze any more. They took the gag seriously! Check out the other reviews. The funny trick is, I believe, that Melville didn't pretend to do anything else but a mock of all the cliches of the genre. He meant it for a mock. Therefore all the iconography of film noir: the raincoat, tha hat, the jazz, the cigarette, the beautiful girl, the gun fight, the blank face, the bluffing detective... at least it must provoke some smile. How about the artificial style of the police station, or the night club? All these elements are chosen intentionally to produce this effect, not to be taken serious. This is the product of an onanist's dream. An interesting, though not fulfilling, film.

The darkest solitude possible .......2007-01-31

Who would think that one of the best Samurai movies had been made by a French director and it took place in gloomy, rainy Paris of the 60s? Great movie, simply amazing with the coolest actor possible to play the Samurai of the title, a "beautiful destructive angel of the dark street", Alain Delon. Delon's Jef Costello, the self-employed killer for hire, does not say much but when he is on the screen, you'd never take your eyes off him. Delon is the major but not the only asset to the film. Mellville's style is so distinguished, so precise, so elegant, so chilling, and so perfect in the exploring the darkest solitude possible (and that of a samurai or a tiger in the jungle) and of the only destiny the samurai has to be prepared for - "One who is a samurai must before all things keep constantly in mind, by day and by night . . . the fact that he has to die. That is his chief business" that I can't think of any other movie to place close to his masterwork.

Average customer rating:

Honor Among Thieves
Starring: Michel Barcet , Charles Bronson , André Dumas , Marianna Falk , and Brigitte Fossey
Director: Jean Herman
Manufacturer: Lionsgate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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52 Pick-Up
If... (Criterion Collection)
Prince of the City (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Hell and High Water
Stone Cold

ASIN: B000OY9V9I
Release Date: 2007-06-19

Description

In this stylish, riveting French thriller, film icons Charles Bronson and Alain Delon team up to create a one-of-a-kind buddy film with a fascinating premise. After serving together in the French Foreign Legion, Franz Propp (Bronson) and Dr. Dino Barran (Delon) go their separate ways only to be reunited by an extraordinary coincidence. Barran is persuaded by a friend to sneak into an underground bank vault and help return stolen bonds. While he is hiding, he comes upon Propp who is actually there to rob the safe. After getting locked inside the vault, the two very different men strike up a powerful friendship that binds them together through a series of shocking developments - from a miraculous escape to being framed for murder.

Average customer rating:

Great epic that also works as a moving family drama
Epic in every sense of the word.
Il Gattopardo
A jump in the past
The majestic Visconti epic...

The Leopard - Criterion Collection
Starring: Luchino Visconti , Burt Lancaster , and Alain Delon
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
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The Leopard

ASIN: B00003CWQL
Release Date: 2004-06-08

Amazon.com

With this magnificent Criterion DVD release, Luchino Visconti's 1963 historical drama The Leopard will finally earn widespread recognition as one of the most beautiful epics ever produced. In adapting the popular novel by Giuseppe Tomassi di Lampedusa (an Italian equivalent to Gone with the Wind, set during the tumultuous Garibaldi revolution of 1860-62), Visconti was initially reluctant to cast Burt Lancaster as the melancholy Prince of Salina--the aging aristocrat "leopard" of the title--who accepts change as inevitable during the struggle for a unified Italy. But Lancaster (even with his voice dubbed in the fully restored Italian release) delivered one of his finest performances, modeled after Visconti himself, and reacting to political and familial upheavals with the wisdom and whimsy of a man who knows that his way of life--and all he holds dear--must change with the times. You won't find a more intimate epic, and Giusseppe Rotunno's masterful cinematography represents the pinnacle of painterly beauty, matched only by the authentic splendor of the film's impeccable production design. The climactic hourlong ballroom scene--which even the hard-to-please Pauline Kael called "one of the greatest of all passages in movies"--is utterly breathtaking. Anchored by Lancaster's performance and the romantic pairing of Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, The Leopard is sheer perfection, fully restored to its 185-minute glory. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Making its long-awaited U.S. home video debut, Luchino Visconti's The Leopard is an epic on the grandest possible scale. The film recreates, with nostalgia, drama, and opulence, the tumultuous years when the aristocracy lost its grip and the middle classes rose and formed a unified, democratic Italy. Burt Lancaster stars as the aging prince watching his culture and fortune wane in the face of a new generation, represented by his upstart nephew (Alain Delon) and his beautiful fiancée (Claudia Cardinale). Awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, The Leopard translates Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel, and the history it recounts, into a truly cinematic masterpiece. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the film in two distinct versions: Visconti's original 187-minute Italian version, and the alternate 161-minute English-language version released in America, in a newly restored, three-disc special edition that also features a new hour-long documentary on the making of the film, and more.

Customer Reviews:

Great epic that also works as a moving family drama.......2007-04-20

"Il Gattopardo" (1963) is a stunning 3+ hours film that is one of the best epics ever made by the only director who could've made it. The film is a rare example of epic that also works well as a moving family drama.

Prince Fabricio Salina (Burt Lancaster, magnificent in this performance which almost did not happen) is the great man full of energy and power who knows that his world of noble aristocrats is doomed to disappear in new Italy united as republic. He is a Leopard of the title, and these are his words, "The leopards and lions are being replaced by jackals and hyenas ... and they all think they're the salt of the earth." Lancaster is one of reasons I loved the film so much.

The film also features two of my favorite actors, young Alain Delon who played Salina's favorite nephew, Tancredi, and heavenly beautiful Claudia Cardinale as Angelica, Tancredi's beloved.

Each moment and each frame of the film are breathtaking, and the final act, an hour-long ballroom extravaganza, ranks among the grandest cinematic set pieces of all time.

Epic in every sense of the word........2007-03-13

Il Gattopardo (Luchini Visconti, 1963)

Luchino Visconti's three-hour epic of the fall of the Italian aristocracy still rings as powerfully today as it did in the sixties. Burt Lancaster stars as Prince Salina, aging patriarch of a clan of the rich and powerful. His nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), is attempting to turn his back on his heritage and embrace the new power-to-the-people mindset sweeping the nation. His position is complicated when Prince Salina attempts to subvert Tancredi's romance with Concetta (Lucilla Morlcchi) by arranging a marriage to Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), an eligible daughter from a rival family.

It pretty much goes without saying that an epic of this scope is going to be beautifully shot, and this one is. Visconti's large and talented stable of actors perform, almost to a one, to the finest of their ability; Demon, especially, was never better than he was here; the brash, bold Tancredi, at odds with both his upbringing and his own nature, constantly testing the limits of both in order to prove-- or, perhaps, only to understand-- himself, seems the role Delon was born to play. Lancaster also shines here. The Prince is old and set in his ways, and the change in his character as the film progresses is utterly illusory. Lancaster chose to play the role in elegantly cynical manner, representing this supposed change of heart to the other characters in the film, but always winking behind his hand at the audience. (After all, when does he soften? After he gets what he wants.)

What's truly amazing about the film is its mastery of pace. In a world where certain studios are well-known for their reluctance to put out movies that stretch longer than ninety minutes, one might expect a movie of this length wouldn't hold the interest of the average moviegoer. Twentieth Century Fox, its American distributor, did in fact think just that; as with a depressing number of truly excellent foreign films in the sixties and seventies, it was released in America only after extensive cuts had been made. While the effect of these cuts was not as devastating as it was with, for example, Profondo Rosso or The Wicker Man, you have to see the full movie to get the full effect. (The Criterion Collection 2DVD set thoughtfully includes both cuts so you can judge the effect for yourself.) The fact of the matter is that Visconti's original three-hour cut (three hours and five minutes, to be exact) is a masterpiece of pacing. It does tend to come off as episodic at times because of the length of certain scenes (the movie's sole weakness), but each of those scenes is paced such that it's thoroughly absorbing. You might wonder how a dinner party with people sitting around and talking can be riveting. (You've never seen My Dinner with Andre if you do, I'm guessing.) It is, easily as much as the cast-of-thousands battle scene.

If you've never seen Il Gattopardo-- and you probably haven't, especially in its original cut, which wasn't available on DVD in America until a few years ago-- you should, if you're at all a film buff. It's a perennial entry on hundred-best lists for very good reason. **** ½

Il Gattopardo.......2007-02-12

Fantastic is all I can say. This is "Gone With the Wind" for Sicily! Burt Lancaster is great and whoever did the voiceover for him was perfect. I actually thought it was Lancaster.

Claudia Cardinale, who must have been all of 21 years old, was breathtaking. The slow, deliberate pace of the film was not a flaw; indeed, it was an asset. It permitted me to grasp the flow of life of the place and time.

Classic movie and it nails the Sicilian psyche perfectly - the one line says it all about Sicilians: "Their misery is exceeded only by their vanity!" I'm Sicilian and I can vouch for that. The other line which is right on is: "They don't feel a need to change because they think they are perfect." Wow! Watch it people, over and over.

Michele LaTona

A jump in the past.......2007-02-11

I was born in Italy, I saw Il Gattopardo, this was the original title, in 1963, I was 22. By the way the Gattopardo is a mytical animal which was on the code of arms of the Principe di Salina; 'gatto' in italian is cat and 'pardo' is the second half of the word leopardo (leopard). At time all the actors were extremely popular, Claudia Cardinale was at the apex of her carrier, she was very beautiful and charming. The entire cast under the direction of Luchino Visconti permormed in an excellent way. It was for me a joy to be able to watch it again and again!

The majestic Visconti epic..........2007-01-12

This is as magnificent as you have heard. All the accolades that this film has received it deserves, and then some. Luchino Visconti is one of the more underrated of Italian filmmakers. Fellini, Pasolini, and Rossellini get mentioned a lot, but one rarely hears about Visconti. He should be better known. The film has one of the greatest setpieces in film history, the ball sequence that takes up nearly an hour at the end of the film. It's so brilliantly conceived and riveting. Not one shot is wasted. The Leopard is a magnificent epic, one of the greatest ever made. I do have a small quip here. Criterion released this as a 3 DVD set. It has the original version, running 185 minutes and in Italian. There's a 2nd disc of extras, but the third disc is the mutilated American version. Why did Criterion release the American version at all? To me, it's a waste of money and of time. They could have easily just included select scenes from it, and compare and contrast it with the proper Italian version. The American version is dubbed in English, cut it by 20 minutes, and printed in Metrocolor, not Technicolor, which is the format the film was shot in originally. Why bother putting a crappy edition out? I doubt anyone is ever going to watch the whole American version. Stick with the great original version.

Average customer rating:

Lousy Movie
Will Goldfinger burn Paris?
Hollywood missed the point
Burned by boredom.
Conscience and Concsientiousness

Is Paris Burning?
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo , Charles Boyer , Leslie Caron , Jean-Pierre Cassel , and George Chakiris
Director: René Clément
Manufacturer: Paramount
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The Train
Operation Amsterdam
The Counterfeit Traitor
The Man Who Never Was
The Bridge at Remagen

ASIN: B00008Z44M
Release Date: 2003-06-10

Amazon.com

This big-budget, star-studded epic 1966 French film features well-known actors from both Europe and America in the story of the final battles over the liberation of Paris at the end of the Second World War. Is Paris Burning? tells the story from all perspectives, from the Nazis to the French resistance, allowing for star turns and cameos from an illustrious group of actors, including Jean-Paul Belmondo (Breathless), Kirk Douglas (Spartacus), Orson Welles (The Third Man), Leslie Caron, Glenn Ford, Charles Boyer, Anthony Perkins, and many others. As the members of the resistance fight for control of the city, the Nazis order the commander in Paris (Gert Fröbe) to burn the city if the resistance gains the upper hand. Written for the screen by author Gore Vidal and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, director René Clément's film hearkens back to the star-filled epics of America's heyday while retaining a modern French sensibility. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews:

Lousy Movie.......2007-05-28

I must not have researched this movie enough before buying the DVD. I was immediately surprised by two things: (1) it's in black & white (the colored cover is deceiving) and (2) it is a French film that is mainly spoken in French although dubbed in English. The big problem with the movie, however, is that it just doesn't flow right. It bounces around too much and is not focused enough. It's just not very interesting, although it recovers some toward the end when the allies entered Paris. My 2-star rating is based on the interesting ending (it was 1-star up until then). I must say that the black & white nature of the film allowed the film-makers to blend in historical footage of Paris during that time period. Much of the ending, for instance, was historical footage of the victorious walk down the Champs-Elysees. It's a long movie, and the wait for the moving end wasn't worth it. I'll probably not watch this again.

Will Goldfinger burn Paris?.......2007-02-20

I fail to understand why a film company would go through the process of cleaning up a negative for DVD and not bother trying to source the original soundtrack for the same DVD. There must exist, somewhere, the original language soundtrack to "Is Paris Burning?" as least in some form. Even an original mono soundtrack included as a bonus would have done the trick.

As it stands, what we get looks like the version that was done a few years ago for the NTSC video release.

The film itself looks clean and clear and it's a nice enough anamorphic transfer. The dubbed soundtrack, for what it's worth is clear, but nothing spectacular. But after all it is a 1966 film. The major problem technically, is that it quickly becomes very irritating seeing all these actors performances reduced to a level of stupidity because their words don't match their mouth movements. Dubbing has never sat right on foreign films and this is no exception. It was and always will be a bad solution for idiots who cannot / will not read subtitles. It's never a good alternative. At least the Region 1 DVD has a French soundtrack. But then EVERYONE will speak French. The Region 2 version I watched didn't. Bizarrely, only Spanish and Italian were included!

The story itself concerns the German attempts to prepare to hold Paris in the face of overwhelming odds. As well as the advancing Allied armies, the Germans also have to deal with the various resistance groups that are building up in the City itself. The films portrayal of the Nationalist and Communist groups however is confused and disjointed. It looks like a deliberate attempt though to make it look like the resistance groups were essentially fighting for the same things...which historically was not correct. I also suspect the producers wished to tone down the Communist element, who were the new "bad guys" in the 1960's, so that the film would do better box office in the States. There are hints are the inter-group rivalry, but the viewer is left unclear why they exist. Either way, it is far more defined in the book that the film is based on.

Most of the performances are good and it's a joy to spot so many faces on the screen. Gert Frobe (ahem...Goldfinger) deserves special mention as General von Choltitz, the Paris Garrison commander. He has the dubious decision of choosing to carry out the Fuhrer's order to "destroy Paris" or to leave the City intact. Historically, of course, it would have been an absolute impossibility for the German's to destroy the city given the parameters involved, but the choice to obey or disobey still remained.

There are a number of cameos too from US stars, such as Anthony Perkins and Glenn Ford, but this really is a film about the French during the end of the Paris occupation.

As a whole it isn't a bad film, but isn't really a good film either. I felt somewhat empty at the end and disappointed too with some un-necessary bog standard "evil German" representations. In the main though, the German's are presented as human. The French are presented as nothing but heroic and noble, which is to be expected, I suppose, but I would have liked to have seen more of the inter- group rivalry that took place in reality. The "good guy/bad guy" polemic just doesn't cut it for a cynical post-Vietnam/Iraq audience anymore.

I can't really recommend "Is Paris Burning" in this format to be honest, but if you don't mind dubbing, sometimes confusing plot structure and a near 3 hour running time, then you may enjoy it. A version with the original French, German and English soundtrack would have been a winner, but the producers missed the boat on that one.

Bottom line is rent instead of buy.

Hollywood missed the point.......2007-01-10

Hollywood took this incredible novel of courage and cunning and turned it into a war epic filled with famous stars who appear for a minute or two only. In the waning days of World War II, Hitler ordered the total destruction of Paris. His general in command of Paris did as little as possible to carry out this order, even advised the allies that they would be welcomed with token resistance. Direct orders to the Luftwaffe to bomb Paris were ignored as well. There was an incredible spontaneous disregard of the Fuhrer's plans to destroy Paris. And when the Allies refused to march to Paris, the French Army left for Paris against orders in the dead of night, forcing Patton to race after them. Apparently, this fantastic story was too dull for Gore Vidal and a young Francis Ford Coppola, who opted instead to write a two dimensional war story about how the Americans and British bailed out the French resistance. Read the book!

Burned by boredom........2006-12-07

This is an amazingly flat piece of propaganda, perhaps government-sponsored, to depict the events in the most flattering way for the French. As usual, a Jewish question is totally omitted while depicting the horrors of Nazi occupation of Paris, as the issue has never existed. I doubt one can speak truth about the war time in France ignoring this part of history. And then, as the movie proceeds, it feels more and more as a farce. The star-studded cast, acting poorly, only contributes to the overall grotesque impression on this film, which begings to feel as a play at puppet theater or a parody, and the music that is clearly plagiarized from Shostakovich Symphony #5 Leningrad makes the final point - if Shostakovich music is truthful, serious and profound, this one is caricature, vaudeville-like and stupid.
I feel it is somewhat an insult to the true events and to those French resistance movement fighters who fought and sacrificed their lives for the liberation of their country.

Conscience and Concsientiousness.......2006-11-18

Based on the factual book of the same name, this film mixes acting with actual footage of the liberation of Paris.

A host of stars, among them Orson Wells, J P Belmondo and Gert Froebe, protrays the liberation of Paris based on the individual accounts of those involved in the forefront of all activity. Among them the story of General von Choltitz, his adjutant Count von Arnim, and of the Swedish consul, whose personal interventions ultimately saved the city and its inhabitants from the utter madness of destruction.

Shot in black and white, it makes fascinating viewing of aspects of life in those final hours of the liberation of Paris. Impressing is too that the German side is not portrayed with the customary 'evil' slant, but in a factual manner. This gives the film an edge over so many others.

Average customer rating:

what a beautiful movie, just that
a great end!
"More a sensation than an idea"
Antonioni is cinema.
Old & New Italia In Black & White

L'Eclisse - Criterion Collection
Starring: Alain Delon , Monica Vitti , Francisco Rabal , Louis Seigner , and Lilla Brignone
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
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Similar Items:

L'Avventura - Criterion Collection
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The Passenger [Region 99]

ASIN: B0007989Y8
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Amazon.com

Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse rolls over you and wraps you in its stylish embrace. The plot, such as it is, follows Vittoria (luscious Monica Vitti, The Red Desert) as her engagement falls apart and she slowly falls into a giddy but anxious affair with Piero (Alain Delon, Le Samourai, Purple Noon), a trader in Rome's stock exchange. Like Ingmar Bergman (Scenes from a Marriage, Persona), Antonioni examines the nuances of human relationships--but where Bergman is dense and dialogue-driven, Antonioni is spare and visual (there's maybe a page of dialogue in the first fifteen minutes of L'Eclisse). Every frame is like an exquisite black and white photograph, yet there's nothing static about this movie. It's fluid, sleek, and graceful, achieving its own kind of visual music. L'Eclisse contrasts opposing elements: Light and shadow, noise and silence, laughter and death, love and money, desire and dissatisfaction. Critics often describe the movie as a portrait of modern alienation, but they focus too much on Vittoria herself; while she finds her own life wanting, all around her Antonioni's camera captures a much larger world, full of as much vitality as despair, as much hope as loss. This is a movie essential to anyone's understanding of what movies can be. --Bret Fetzer

Description

The conclusion of Michelangelo Antonioni's informal trilogy on modern malaise, which began with L'avventura, L'eclisse (The Eclipse) tells the story of a young woman (Monica Vitti) who leaves one lover (Francisco Rabal) only to drift into a relationship with another (Alain Delon).

Customer Reviews:

what a beautiful movie, just that.......2007-05-12

L'Eclisse is a beautiful Italian neo-realist movie by director Michelangelo Antonioni, starring Monica Vitti as Vittoria and Alain Delon as Piero. Vittoria is a good-hearted woman who is "halfway there", meaning that finds herself at a point of desperately needed change. She can't see how a change would add meaning to her life, but she shows interest about all that surrounds her, and is willing to try new and eccentric things (like flying over Rome one afternoon or dressing up as a Somali woman) that ultimately prove to be empty of meaning. At the beginning we witness her separation from her fiancé, who was not a thrill to her either.
Piero is a hyperkinetic stocks runner, Vittoria's mother being a client, whose job demands absolute concentration, time, and iron people skills. Even though he never stops moving and jumping around, he also proves to be unable to see much meaning in life.
The two meet and fall in love, beginning a torrid romance, but even though they are with each other most of the time, be it playing or going for a walk, they hardly ever speak about anything and they seem to each have a large percentage of their thoughts devoted to scrutinizing every single thing, perhaps not for fun but to find significance in them; they are constantly laughing and smiling at little things, trying to be creative and break the routine, but Vittoria does not even consider the idea of making theirs a long-term relationship because she sees nothing to it: "I wish I didn't love you, or loved you much more", she says. She finds everything "halfway there", nothing is intense or dramatic enough to have real relevance.
Vittoria is Antonioni's existential heroine. She has a sort of innate elegance, a sort of abandon to her gestures and her contagious laughter, but she is able to adapt her face to the situation into a shyly desperate expression. Piero is constantly on the run and usually very cruel, but is unable to mistreat Vittoria at all. It is never clear if they like each other because they recognize their nihilism in the other's personality, but I sensed it so. They are so caught up in their own labyrinths that they become physically and emotionally dependent of the other: the reflection in the mirror.
The film ends quite abruptly as Vittoria and Piero set a date for the evening after a long embrace that could very easily mean "good-bye", but regardless of whether they continue their relationship it is not meant to last. With so similar an outlook of the value of daily life, they would most likely evolve to become nihilistic about each other.
On the more technical side, the film is a photographic masterpiece. Every frame looks like a carefully designed picture, every single one is priceless. Monica Vitti's performance is very endearing because she is not an ice maiden and she is not a silly bimbo, she's a credible good-natured woman in a difficult situation. Alain Delon is also remarkably charming (and repulsive at times) as Piero. The film itself is full of music and beautiful, albeit usually lonely, scenarios of Rome, and even though it exceeds 160 minutes, I found it hypnotizing enough not to realize the passing of time.

a great end!.......2007-05-10

Mónica Vitti has the silliest laugh in the cinema and the most expressive eyes. Acts without speaking, her African dance is extraordinarily sensual, the scene in the stock exchange is incredible. A great movie

"More a sensation than an idea" .......2007-05-06

A young free-lance translator breaks up with her fiancé after an incommunicative night. She goes to the stock market, seeking comfort from her mother who is preoccupied with her stock trading; however, she meets her mother's young stockbroker. She next has the following experiences: a carefree girl's night, flight through clouds in an airplane, and the openness of a small airport environment. The stock market crashes, causing financial hardships, and her mother becomes more concerned with her stock losses than her daughter's well being. The stockbroker takes the young woman to his parents' house while no one is at home. The couple approaches and withdraws, and eventually becomes intimate. Post-intimacy conversation reveals their lack of understanding of each other. Office sex ensues, and the couple decides to see each other forever, and to meet again that night. There is an eclipse that night.
The theme of this film is the alienation that leads two self-absorbed, affluent young people to create a superficial and dependant love relationship in the context of materialism and parental neglect.
This theme is supported by the use of the elements of film style. Dialogue gives us contrastive language between the two people which reveals how little they know of themselves and each other. "I feel like I'm in a foreign land," Pierro says to Vittoria. "You make me feel the same. How strange," she replies. This dialogue tells the audience that this couple, though physically intimate, is not emotionally connected, cluing us into the superficiality of their relationship and their self-absorption. Action shows us Pierro and Vittoria kissing through the glass pane of the cabinet door. This suggests to the viewer their physical longing for one another while reinforcing their disconnectedness. Composition places the couple on the edge of frames and at crosswords. These displays make the audience feel tense, lonely and precarious. This use of composition relates to the theme in that it makes the audience feel the lack of insight that Vittoria and Pierro suffer from. The fast cuts within the editing of the stock market scene emphasize the animalistic nature of the stock market, making the audience feel entranced and frightened. The materialism aspect of the theme is shown through this editing scene. The musical score and various sound effects create contrasts of anxiety, calmness, and desolation which put the feeling of alienation into the viewer.
This film is ultimately valuable today because its theme is inescapable. From the time that Antonioni created L'Eclisse, the world has grown no less materialistic and healthy relationships have grown no less dependent upon a strong sense of self and understanding of others. Although the alienation of the young people was caused by the threat of nuclear war, financial struggle and parental neglect of 1960's Italy, similar political, financial and familial instabilities can cause similar feelings among the youth of today. Technology continues to progress, and with it, one could easily argue, human communication declines. L'Eclisse argues that awareness of self and of the external motivations for personal desires is necessary for healthy relationships in such an environment. This awareness entails intense understanding of emotion: the human factor that connects us even in states of desolation and loneliness. Antonioni wrote of the film, "All I am capable of thinking is that during an eclipse even feelings probably come to a halt." Thus the eclipse is the connecting factor for the alienated characters of the film, proving at least that, by existing together, we are capable of union. Antonioni portrays what critic `Hawk' of Variety Magazine referred to as the "eclipse of sentiments" masterfully in the final ten minutes of the film. The final montage is dominated by a slow movement from images of crossroads, a construction site, Vittoria's apartment building, and various unknown faces: all people, places, and things that have witnessed the development of Vittoria and Pierro's relationship. This montage ultimately creates "a sensation which defines the film" by relating seemingly unrelated things, proving the connectedness of life even within the context of L'Eclisse.
As is to be expected with an extreme artistic endeavor such as L'Eclisse, the film received mixed reviews. While Hollis Alpert of the Saturday Review commends Antonioni's masterful use of cinematic style, he complains that Vittoria and Pierro's emotions "have become so vitiated that we cannot help but wonder why we are to be so concerned about them." That is one of the primary concerns of the film, however: the understanding of what context leads to such impaired emotions and what comes of them. An unknown critic for Time similarly complains that Antonioni's "pessimism" is "sick" and "naïve." There is hope even within a world that loves money, and "evil is not the dominant quality of modern life," this critic claims. One fails to understand exactly which film this critic was watching. To have missed the hope that Antonioni layered into L'Eclisse is astonishing. Even if the musical score and dialogue were taken away, one could not watch the beautiful sequence of image and montage without feeling both the struggle and the immense hope. Other critics, such as Bosley Crowther (The N. Y. Times) and "Hawk" of Variety Magazine attained a greater grasp of Antonioni's "eclipse of sentiments" and the context which drove the characters to their low state and the audience to its revelation. "Modern society and the money which commands it are turning man into an object... unable to maintain normal relationships," says "Hawk." Thus, he says, the eclipse metaphor works on several levels, emphasizing both the eclipsing effect of materialism and displaced emotion, as well as the veil of human connectedness that ends the movie.

Antonioni is cinema........2007-03-26

This review may contain spoilers.

I say this is a film. L'Eclisse can easily be described: Desolation married with beauty. Absolutely. Though this four-lettered description of Antonioni's masterpiece is appropriate (on some level), it will never say enough. It is the details. The small things, you know, that make this haunting display of isolation transpire into its own dimension of aesthetics. This film should initially be viewed for its unconventional techniques. But is also remarkably enjoyable on a simpler level with humor placed sporadically and wonderfully throughout. Ultimately, though, the film's focus is the destructiveness of the modern world.

The cinematography of the landscape. It is fresh and crisp. Its breadth is spectacular. Antonioni leads the scenery into the foreground. To an exalting and resplendent effect. The vacuous setting superimposes the characters and belittles them from every facet. Monica Vitti is perfection. Oh, rather. Visually fragrant to the point that her screen presence draws you into her spellbinding "loneliness." Vitti's Vittoria constantly feels the world through her fingertips. Attempts a physical connection to her surroundings. Yet, her environment is lifeless and barren. Her relationships the same. The men Vittoria sees are emotionally inert.

We start off with the end of Vittoria's relationship with Riccardo (Francisco Rabal). Riccardo stares off into nothing here and there. Vittoria trying to feel a connection with anything as she wanders around the room. She leaves finally. She later meets Alain Delon's Piero, a materialistic stock broker that is also void of any real emotions reserved for the love Vittoria is seeking. His love is for money. While she has a relationship with Piero, it is an empty affair. One simply for convenience in the end. Although the ending is seemingly a short art-house film for the sake of innovative elegance (and leaves Vittoria and Piero's realtionship to speculation), it is magnificent.

Like Alain Resnais' films, L'Eclisse is tantamount only to itself. And is appreciated, perhaps, by only those with an affinity for cinematic high-end art. For that is what it is. And that is why I love it.

Old & New Italia In Black & White.......2006-12-25

Antonioni's masterpiece of the Italian post-war generation may be the best delineation of mid-century cultural shock ever set to film (next to Blow-Up).

Monica Vitti, resembling a Modigliani painting, wanders around a house filled with ancient art on the walls at the beginning of the film. Her restlessness is representative of the new generation's dissatisfaction with the old world. Restlessness giving way to transition is a key point in the film.

"You never stay still", Monica Vitti complains to Alain Delon at one point in the film, yet it's she who wanders endlessly from room to room, house to house, even flying in a plane at one point in the film and changing her skin color in another scene. She may be the first ADD character ever portrayed on film. Everything in fact, is in a state of running away: Delon's sports car into a lake, a balloon surrendered to an endless sky, even objects can't stay still.

Conforming to the title of the film, Vitti is mostly seen dressed in white with her pretty blonde hair, alternately enveloping and escaping from Alain Delon, always dressed in a black suit with his black hair. The differing shades are always competing for dominance, sometimes lunar, sometimes solar.

At the end of "L'Eclisse" Antonioni shows a bleak, empty urban street preparing for what may or may not be a nuclear explosion. The question begs in the final shot, are we looking at the A-bomb or an overwhelmingly bright light bulb? Either object has changed our world from the old to the new.

Average customer rating:

The fine art of murder
Very good choice. Very good buy
Great movie but DVD had technical problems
Watch it, you'll like it...
First Rate

Purple Noon
Starring: Alain Delon , Maurice Ronet , Marie Laforêt , Erno Crisa , and Frank Latimore
Director: René Clément
Manufacturer: Miramax
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Mr. Klein
Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
Ripley's Game

ASIN: B00005JKSO

Amazon.com essential video

A member of the middle generation of French filmmakers between Renoir and the New Wave, René Clément was a strong visual stylist who tried on different subjects and genres: documentaries, semidocumentaries, wartime dramas, comedies. In Purple Noon he showed a strong facility for feverish film noir, and the results are quite memorable. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the film stars Alain Delon as the notoriously amoral Ripley (a character also played, albeit quite differently, by Dennis Hopper in Wim Wenders's The American Friend). Envious of a playboy pal (Maurice Ronet) having a luxurious time on the Mediterranean, Ripley decides to murder the man and assume his identity. The subsequent suspense concerns the dirty deed done and the aftermath of complicated cover-ups, and in the best Hitchcockian sense you can never quite tell whose side you're on as Ripley's efforts at survival are followed in meticulous detail. Mesmerizing to watch, saturated in light and color, and topped by Delon at his most icy, Purple Noon is a terrific discovery for enthusiasts of film noir and the French cinema. --Tom Keogh

Description

Filled with suspense, PURPLE NOON is the critically acclaimed thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat! A handsome, wealthy bachelor has a sexy girlfriend and all the finest things money can buy. His envious friend, on the other hand, has nothing but his charm, good looks ... and a wickedly sinister plot to take over the rich man's life! Tensions mount as this deadly game unfolds and the murderer struggles to stay one step ahead of the police -- and the ever-growing suspicions of the dead man's friends! Prepare yourself for PURPLE NOON, a shocking story of betrayal, murder, and stolen identity in a world where nothing is as it seems!

Customer Reviews:

The fine art of murder.......2006-07-30

Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY might be the finest American suspense thriller ever written. A clever young man from a disadvantaged background is sent abroad by an industrialist to bring home the latter's spoiled and vicious son; befriending the young rotter in Italy, the antihero becomes enamored of his decadent lifestyle and kills him so he can assume his identity. The novel is not only suspenseful but it forms a brilliant disquisition on the nature of identity at mid-century, and its relationship to texts, reputation, and capital. Two very intelligent films have been made from it that capture different parts of it successfully: the latest is Anthony Minghella's 1999 big-budget Hollywood thriller starring Matt Damon, but the first was this beautifully photographed French version directed by Rene Clement starring Alain Delon as Ripley.

Clement's version succeeds best in its evocation of the lovely rarefied atmosphere of the tourist Italy of the American jetset: the cinematography has a crystalline postcard beauty that makes Rome and the Italian coast seem supernatually beautiful. It also has a much better Ripley in Delon than Minghella had in Damon: Delon is much less hesitant and much more desperate and amoral, and he also has the requisite handsomeness (and facial resemblance to the rich wastrel he murders and replaces) that Damon lacks. As the gorgeous, cruel Dickie Greenleaf (here called Phillipe), Maurice Ronet is absolutely first-rate, toying with Ripley in the mistaken belief that he holds all the cards in their friendship. Less successful as Phillipe's emotionally abused girlfriend Marge is Marie Leforet, who doesn't seem to react to Phillipe at all as an American girl would ever conceiveably do. The film is great at conveying an aura of homoerotic decadence, but it loses quite a bit by beginning the story in medias res: by not showing us the circumstances from which Ripley came, we have little sense at what is at stake in his masquerade. But this is this fine adaptation's only major shortcoming.

Very good choice. Very good buy.......2006-06-30

I am pleased with this movie. I got it at the right time the seller told me. Good price too.

Great movie but DVD had technical problems.......2005-03-27

This movie had some strange problems at the menu level and at the end of the playback. Sometimes there was a dark screen at the beginning, also it was not possible to start the movie using some of the menu links. At the very end playback became jumpy. All those problems are probably an effect of faulty manufacturing, surface of this DVD doesn't look perfect.

Watch it, you'll like it..........2004-12-09

This is one out of just two movies (the other being Trainspotting) that liked so much I wanted to read the book (once I found it it was a book). Usually I love the book and hate the movie with a passion. While I must admit that this movie doesn't exactly follow the book step by step, it does stick to the story (unlike Minghella's version). Even with it's differences, I still loved the film.

The cinematography (sp?) is beautiful, the film is suspensful and compelling, and the casting is all you could ever want. Maurice Ronet makes for a wonderful Dickie Greenleaf. He's detached, self-centred, and cruel. He seems to be playing some sort of game with Marge's emotions rather than actually loving her. Ronet's Dickie is just like in the book, an arse. Although Clement's Marge is more independent and more beautiful than she seems to be in Patricia Highsmith's novel, she's still Marge. I think I actually like her better in the movie, Marie Laforet makes her more sympathetic. As for Alain Delon, not only is he gorgeous, but he plays Tom marvelously. He really makes you root for a killer.

I showed this movie to a friend of mine who's never watched foriegn film. She told me that the film always kept her guessing and she couldn't take her eyes off the screen because she was so engrossed in the story. She also said that Delon's portrayal of Tom really makes your opinion of the character change througout the film. She's currently reading the book. Not only that; after Purple Noon, I showed her Der Krieger Und Die Kaiserin and now I've got her hooked on foriegn film (;

To put it very simply, you must see this film!
See my review for Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley for a comparison of the two movies (and to read how bad Minghella's version is).

First Rate.......2004-09-11

I saw this film, about ten years ago and mainly because I had read a review stating that Martin Scorsese had hailed this film as a masterpiece.I wasn't disappointed.The pace the locales and Alain Delon's great acting make this film a cut above the rest.
In defense to The Talented Mr. Ripley, seeing that other reviewers have sort of panned it in comparison to this film, I found The Talented Mr. Ripley equally great.As a matter of fact when I first saw Purple Noon I kept thinking That Ripley had to have some sexual attraction to Greenleaf although the film does not show it.Then I saw TTMR and read some information on the actual book and I was like "I knew it!"
Basically both films are about the same thing, wanting to be something you're not. As Matt Damon said in TTMR "I would rather be a fake somebody than a real nobody" sad but to the point.

Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Pacing baby!
Capers with your salad sir?
A return to majestic silence?
A very influential movie
A very influential movie

Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
Starring: Alain Delon , Bourvil , Gian Maria Volontè , Yves Montand , and Paul Crauchet
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Manufacturer: Criterion
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Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
Bob le Flambeur - Criterion Collection
Un Flic
Rififi - Criterion Collection
Army of Shadows - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B0000BUZKP
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Amazon.com

Crime cinema has never been so meticulously and coolly executed. Taciturn thief Alain Delon (intense and dapper in trenchcoat and fedora) and escaped prisoner Gian Maria Volonte cross paths as if by fate, bound by saving each other's life, and join with disgraced ex-cop Yves Montand for their next job: a daring jewel robbery. Le Cercle Rouge is the ultimate expression of the romantic doom that Jean-Pierre Melville established in his masterpieces Bob Le Flambeur and Le Samourai. The centerpiece heist, a wordless 20-minute sequence with masked men communicating in codified gestures, is a tour de force of cinematic efficiency that tops even Rififi in its celebration of criminal skill and nerve. Melville's cool detachment doesn't allow us to really warm up to these uncompromising pros, but his cinematic precision is spellbinding and his unforgiving world of loyalty, professionalism, sacrifice, and codes of honor is an irresistible underworld fantasy.

The Criterion DVD restores the film, which was originally cut by 40 minutes for its American release, to its full-length director's cut. Additionally, it features new interviews with Melville's assistant director Bernard Stora and friend and expert Rui Nogueira, rare archival interviews with the director and his cast, and a new introduction by filmmaker and Melville fan John Woo among its wealth of supplements. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Master thief Corey (Alain Delon) is fresh out of prison. But instead of toeing the line of law-abiding freedom, he finds his steps leading back to the shadowy world of crime, crossing paths with a notorious escapee (Gian Maria Volonté) and an alcoholic ex-cop (Yves Montand). As the unlikely trio plots a heist against impossible odds, their trail is pursued by a relentless inspector (André Bourvil), and fate begins to seal their destinies. Taking its title from Buddhist lore, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle rouge combines honorable anti-heroes, coolly atmospheric cinematography, and breathtaking set pieces to create a masterpiece of crime cinema.

Customer Reviews:

Pacing baby!.......2007-03-15

I love 70' cinema. There is something about the photography, the pace and the style that speaks to me very strongly. 70' cinema showed me that a strong movie does not need an overdoze of over-the-top action or be a special effect galore to be thrilling, and Le Cercle Rouge directed by Melville is celluloid proof of that. Le Cercle Rouge's narrative, atmosphere, details and beautifull photography glues you to the screen. The movie take it's time to show you what occurs on screen, no scene is rush and the pacing enable you to really soak up the story. An a very good story at that - well acted by Delon, Montand, Volonté and espacialy Bourvil - about escaping, getting out, struggling and robbing a jewllery, but mostly a story about the collision of intense men on different side of the law. So sit back, relax and enjoy Melville's amazing work.

Capers with your salad sir?.......2006-05-13

Standing on the rooftop, looking down into the empty square, three thieves are about to meet in The Red Circle. I like me a good caper film, and Le Cercle Rouge shot right to the top of my favorites, along with Heat and Rififi. I'd have to go; Rififi's silent heist then Le Cercle Rouge's no-nonesense burgle closely behind.

Alain Delon plays Corey, an unflappable theif who is on the cusp of being released from prison, when a guard convinces him to go for a gigantic jewelry heist at a shop the guard's relative is employed at. Corey's job will be to assemble a team somehow and fence the jewelry, basically do everything. The guard insists. Meanwhile, a man named Vogel (Gian Maria Volont?) is being escorted to Paris by the police for some unknown crime (at least I may have missed the mention). These two men's path eventually meet, and that of a third, to pull of a jewel heist of biblical proportions. All of this happens as Vogel is being hunted by nearly all of France's police might.

The subtlties of Le Cercle Rouge are endless, with the best aspect being the ommission of superfluous patronizing on the part of Jean-Pierre Melville. Even the actors employed a certian "economy of motion" (one of my very favorite phrases) that kept things fresh and natural. I don't really know what to add other than an extended recap. It's a must see for fans of the previously mentioned films.

A return to majestic silence?.......2006-04-25

Everyone likes the cooly created, memorable heist movie. Alain Delon provides the antihero, Melville provides the cool, and a handful of other great talent (Yves Montand, Gian Maria Volonte, and Andre Bourvil, mostly) arrives to add a crisp engaging movie...

...with very little dialog. This is great, because one certain aspect of the genre tends to be a lot of dialog involving the quick-witted and their various repartees. This movie, however, could be watched with the sound completely off and not too terribly much would be missed. Not to say the sound is bad, oh no, the jazzy soundtrack and the crisp audio catching the little movements makes the slow, patient deliberation of the patients very compelling.

What's also really neat about this film is that the color cinematography is pretty fantastic. Usually when it comes to cinematography, black and white movies tend to stick out in my mind, but this film has some very strong and beautiful imagery that makes the movie pure visual pleasure to observe.

--PolarisDiB

A very influential movie.......2006-02-26

(1970) An exceptional movie, a film noir à la française simply amazing of minimalism and master. This movie is probably after Le Samourai, from the same director Jean Pierre Melville (used this alias because was in love with the Moby Dick book) on the most influential movie on contemporary film making. Jim Jarmush (Ghost Dog), John Woo (The Killer) and many more, loudly claim their admiration for Melville's work and Le Cercle Rouge. John Woo recently announced his will to remake Le Cercle rouge along with three other french film noirs (all featuring Alain Delon).
Andre Bourvil is amazing of sobriety (knowing that he used to be a stand up comic and comedian) as Commissaire Mattei aging cop, decided to do anything to arrest Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte) who escaped from him at the begining of the movie, this role would be the last one for Bourvil, he died just right after the shooting. Lino ventura was Melville's first choice. Alain Delon (After Le Samourai in 1967) plays a small crook, getting out a of jail (set in Marseille) heading to Paris for a heist (idea given to him by one of the wardens), when he encounters Gian Maria Volonte character (Some may have seen him in Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More in 1965). Yves Montand is probably the best character, playing an alcoholic ex cop, taking part of the heist by will of redemption (the scene where he is hallucinating is purely amazing), Melville was gonna use Jean Paul Belmondo for the role. Guns are here pure accessories only used for the final shotdown. Great tribute to the original film noir era, slow movie but never boring, great character description are what makes Le Cercle Rouge this masterpiece which continues to fascinate every movie fan round the world.

A very influential movie.......2006-02-26

Average customer rating:

Alain Delon in Mr Klein
A man and his double
"The subject could well be a member of the Semitic race."
Pride and prejudice: a tale of French anti-Semitism
A tragedy of mistakes

Mr. Klein
Starring: Michel Aumont , Francine Bergé , Roland Bertin , Juliet Berto , and Jean Bouise
Manufacturer: Homevision
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Purple Noon
Un Flic
Le Samourai - Criterion Collection
Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) - Criterion Collection
The Conformist (Extended Edition)

ASIN: B0001A67AQ
Release Date: 2004-05-18

Amazon.com

How can state-sponsored bigotry destroy the life of an "ordinary" citizen, one whose heritage should exempt him from such policies? The eponymous Mr. Klein (Alain Delon), a suave, single, wealthy Parisian art dealer, finds out. It's 1942, the Nazis have occupied Paris, and Jews are being arrested and shipped to Germany. The lucky ones obtain false passports and flee the country. Robert Klein, whose family has been "French and Catholic since Louis XIV," is taking advantage of the situation by buying up Jewish family heirlooms at rock-bottom prices. Then one morning a Jewish newspaper appears on his doorstep, addressed to Robert Klein. The fact that he received mail intended for another Parisian Robert Klein--this one a Jew--must be a simple mistake. But is it?

Mr. Klein becomes obsessed with finding his Jewish alter ego, finally falling into a trap from which it is impossible to escape. Directed by Joseph Losey, who confronted prejudice in The Boy with Green Hair, and written by Franco Solinas, coauthor with Costa-Gavras of such classics of political intrigue as State of Siege, Mr. Klein is haunting and suspenseful: an exciting thriller with real substance. --Laura Mirsky

Description

Both a thriller and a Kafkaesque dissertation on identity, Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein stars Alain Delon (Le Samorai, Le Cercle rouge) as Robert Klein—a charming and unscrupulous art dealer in Nazi-occupied France. As Jews flee Paris, Klein exploits them, preying on their desperation by buying their valuables at a fraction of their worth...until he finds his name is shared by a Jewish criminal who is a member of the anti-Nazi resistance. Klein reports this to the authorities only to find he is uncontrollably sinking into the quicksand of mistaken identity. Co-starring Jeanne Moreau (La Femme Nikita), Mr. Klein is an award-winning suspense classic that studies the ever-changing relationship between victim and oppressor.

Customer Reviews:

Alain Delon in Mr Klein.......2007-05-07

This movie creeps up on you, and in a way you find yourself hoping that Mr Klein might survive his self-created nightmare - but wait for the very last look/from (at) Delon in the movie - it says everything!

A man and his double.......2007-04-01

Joseph Losey's dark moody drama of a man and his double or his shadow takes place in Paris of 1942 during the Nazi Occupation. Mr. Klein, in excellent performance by Alain Delon (if anybody ever tells you that Delon is nothing but a pretty face, NEVER believe it. Delon is a great actor with amazing screen presence who happened to be one of the most beautiful people ever lived), is a French Catholic antique dealer, successful with his business and adored by the ladies. At first, he does not care much about the occupation and the fate of Jews who had to sell their pricey pieces of Art and personal belongings for a song just to be able to leave France and to save their lives. On the contrary, he only becomes richer but everything changes when he is confused with another Robert Klein, his namesake, a wanted by the authorities' member of the underground resistance and a Jew. In the atmosphere of the total fear, bigotry, hatred, and paranoia, the "presumption of innocence" ceases to exist and Mr. Klein must prove that he is not a Jew or to face the fate of millions whose fault was to belong to the "inferior race". While trying to claim his comfortable life back, Mr. Klein begins looking for the man he never met but who by the bitter irony of fate had played such a s