Le Samouraï (1967)

Le Samouraï (1967), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.

The assassin's apartment is rough and austere, although all the other locations we see, including the police station, are rich and modern. He smokes in bed and lives on cigarettes and mineral water. He is empty eyed but a snappy dresser. His girlfriend is only for alibis.

He takes professional precautions, but with that hat and trench coat he looks just like a hit man and it's no wonder there are plenty of witnesses to his latest contract on a nightclub owner. The police are on to him, his employers try to burn him, and a female witness who saw him clearly refuses to identify him. He thinks he knows why...

It's emotionally neutral. We don't care for anyone in it and never pick a side. Much of it is police procedural: finding and tracking him.

Criterion DVD.