Heads up. I just learned that at long last the Criterion Collection is coming out with Jean Pierre Melville's classic Le Samourai in DVD, announced for October. I've been waiting for it for years.

Not a gangster or mob film, but one of my personal favourite films ever. A must see for any serious Film lover.

Mick

It's my favorite film of all time, but as Capo said it is not a gangster film. Anyone who appreciates film should see it, especially people who like Tarantino movies (Melville was an inspiration). This film is one of the best examples of suspense in cinema, keeping it constant through the film.

It is very much a French gangster film, what Melville referred to as the "milieu." Jef Costello is a hit man for a mob boss who betrays him and sends one of his gangsters to kill him, not pay him. "Get Carter," a British film starring Michael Caine as a hit man seeking revenge is also considered one of Britain's best gangster films, along with "Mona Lisa."

Amazon just e-mailed me to let me know that Le Sam is available for pre-order, which I did. They say it'll be available on October 18. I wonder what extras the DVD will have.

Special Features


New, restored high-definition digital transfer

New video interviews with Jean-Pierre Melville historians Rui Nogueira and Ginette Vincendeau

Collection of excerpts from archival interviews with Melville and actors Alain Delon, Cathy Rosier, Nathalie Delon, and François Périer

Theatrical trailer

New and improved English subtitle translation

A new essay by film scholar David Thomson and a reprinted tribute by filmmaker John Woo

More!

Thanks, Don vercetti, I must have missed the list of extras in the Criterion site. It sounds like the extras are just as good as the ones they included for the Le Circle Rouge edition. Nogueira can get a bit garrulous, but he is entertaining and the author of that classic interview book with Melville. I have Vincendeu's excellent book on Melville and look forward to her DVD comments. I'm not an admirer of the condescending David Thomson, however. He once described Jean Gabin's character in Le Jour se Leve as a "gangster," when anyone who really saw the movie knows he plays a worker who kills someone and is trapped by the police. But good stuff otherwise.