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Ah, what a relief after the year-end self-importance of The Brutalist and Nosferatu to have some good January pulp in our filmgoing lives again. Seven years in the making, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera finally brings us back into the world of weary, hard-drinking cop Big Nick (Gerard Butler) and aspirant master-thief Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.). A film that even its biggest fans gave the backhanded compliment of “douchebag Heat,” the original Den of Thieves strangely endured––if partly due to a mixture of ambition and sleaze, almost like the grizzled anti-heroes at its center.

The previous film ended with a bloody, foiled Los Angeles heist leaving Nick on the trail of Donnie, who had fled to London after being revealed as something of a secret criminal mastermind. The sequel opens on an airplane-diamond heist in Antwerp, Donnie now part of a highly skilled, mostly Slavic team of thieves called The Panthers.

“The Stoic” stands out as an incredibly honest and introspective film that grapples with themes of justice and personal philosophy in a world full of Hollywood movies. The story is centered on a lone killer, only known as “The Stoic,” who faces off against a gang of cruel thieves in the lonely countryside of Britain.

The character, played with quiet intensity by Scott Wright, is not just a one-dimensional hero but a complex figure wrestling with Stoic philosophy—a mix of action and contemplation that feels fresh and relevant.

As directed by Jon Eckersley, “The Stoic” tries to find its place in the independent film world by taking a simple approach that is very different from the flashy looks of mainstream movies. The narrative of the film moves along at a slow but steady pace, allowing audiences to become fully immersed in the minds of its characters while also questioning standard narrative techniques.

Lenny Borger, who served as Variety‘s Paris correspondent and film reviewer throughout the 1980s and who championed French cinema for decades as a researcher and subtitle expert for numerous films including Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless,” died Dec. 23 in Paris. He was 73.

Producer Serge Bromberg reported that he died after a long illness.

Borger was raised in Brooklyn, and moved to Paris in 1977 to work on his doctoral thesis. Abandoning his academic work, he began covering the French film scene for Variety and served as a correspondent and film reviewer from 1978 to 1990.

During that time he also began working on providing the English subtitles for French films, and Bertrand Tavernier gave him his first subtitling job for the 1980 “A Week’s Vacation.”

Film critic and Amazon executive Scott Foundas called Borger “a kind of medium, channeling the linguistic spirit of a given film and making it live anew for English-speaking audiences the world over.

Sometimes, the one thing we want out of movies is for them to play on our emotions, senses, and logical reasoning with enough aplomb and effectiveness to make us feel them in our bones — to physically overwhelm us, tense up our nerves, draw sweat from our palms, make our eyes open wide involuntarily.

No kind of movie does that better than a good thriller, whether we're talking tight, single-location potboilers that keep turning up the heat, mind-exploding puzzle films that make you guess and hold your breath for answers, gritty unsentimental crime capers, deep forays into disturbed and traumatized psyches, or carefully-plotted twist-o-ramas. There are countless great thrillers out there, but, if you're looking for a worthwhile one to queue up on Prime Video, you've come to the right place. Here, we've compiled a list of 15 excellent thriller movies available at no additional charge to U.S. Prime Video subscribers.

New York-based Rialto Pictures is gearing up for the release of Studiocanal’s 4K restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1961 musical comedy “A Woman Is a Woman.”

The film, Rialto’s first release of 2025, stars Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film will hit selected U.S. theaters on Feb. 7.

The new restoration, which premiered this year in Locarno, was made from the negative 35mm original copy, digitized by Paris-based post production company Hiventy and realized by Studiocanal with the collaboration of France’s National Center of Cinema (Cnc).

Rialto’s biggest success this year was the 75th anniversary of “The Third Man,” Rialto Co-President Adrienne Halpern told Variety at the Lumière Film Festival’s International Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon, France.

‘The Third Man’

The 4K restoration of Carol Reed’s 1949 classic, starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, was carried out by Deluxe Restoration on behalf of Studiocanal.

French production-distribution-sales powerhouse Studiocanal, which holds one of the largest film libraries in the world with some 9,000 titles, has completed its Jean-Pierre Melville collection with the acquisition of his 1950 classic “The Terrible Children” (“Les Enfants Terribles”).

This latest high-profile addition joins the ranks of the studio’s Melville lineup, which includes “Army of Shadows,” “Le Cercle Rouge,” “Bob le Flambeur,” and “Le Doulos.” This acquisition solidifies Studiocanal’s position as a leading player in both the French and international film markets

A subsidiary of the Canal+ Group, Studiocanal’s acquisition policy focuses not just on contemporary film rights, but on the preservation and restoration of cinematic treasures. By securing rights from other studios and investing in the preservation of older titles, the company not only controls distribution and remake rights but also breathes new life into some of cinema’s most revered works.

Ahead of the International Classic Film Market...

Over the years, Quentin Tarantino has built quite a reputation for being an amazing filmmaker, screenwriter, and even actor. Although he will go down in history for his work on films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and more, those movies were not what should be considered his original cult classic hit. In fact, before Tarantino became a household name with his work, his passion for storytelling and a knack for writing sharp, gritty dialogue paved the way to success.

Quentin Tarantino | Image by Gage Skidmore, licensed under Cc By-sa 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Over the years, many fans have realized that the genesis of his career began with a story he sold to fund his debut film, Reservoir Dogs. This original cult hit was True Romance, a script that Tarantino wrote and sold, which became a stepping stone that enabled him to make his directorial debut.

The Quentin Tarantino script that...

Singer-songwriter Benjamin Booker is back with his first new music in seven years, “Lwa In the Trailer Park,” which will appear on his upcoming album, Lower.

“Lwa In the Trailer Park” signals a major shift artistic shift for Booker from the blues, punk, and Americana-inspired sounds of his first two albums to something more experimental and noisier (Booker co-produced the album with celebrated producer Kenny Segal). But Booker’s songcraft and knack for melody remain tight as ever, as he sings in hushed tones over blown-out drums and screaming guitars,...

Few films have been as massively influential on the action genre as John Woo‘s “The Killer”, where the director’s choreographed shootouts and Chow Yun Fat‘s virile charisma dazzled as never before. 35 years later, the Hong Kong director is back with a Paris-set, English- and French-language remake of that film, also called “The Killer” (not to be confused with David Fincher’s 2023 film of the same name). This was a strange idea to begin with, one that had been kicking around Hollywood for decades (the film is co-produced by Universal). And as it turns out, a rather misplaced idea too.

Where to watch

The main story is almost identical, with one major difference: now the titular character, Zee, is a woman (played by Nathalie Emmanuel). She still is a supremely effective contract killer who can shoot her way through any situation – until she decides to spare the life...

Above: Official poster by Yves Tinguely for the 12th New York Film Festival in 1974.The twelfth edition of the New York Film Festival, which took place 50 years ago this week, in September 1974, could have been convincingly called the New York European Film Festival. Out of the seventeen new feature films playing, all but two were European: seven French, three German, two Italian, two Swiss, and one British. Though festival director Richard Roud wrote in the program that “one of the most exciting developments in world cinema these past two years has been the re-emergence of the American film,” there was in fact only one American film in the main lineup (the world premiere of John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence) though there was also a program of four American shorts by Mirra Bank, Martha Coolidge, William Greaves, and an exciting upstart named Martin Scorsese. There was just one...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSChicken Run.After earlier claims that they were “not in jeopardy,” the 29-location Landmark Theatre chain now faces foreclosure, though IndieWire reports that may not be such a bad thing.After releasing a trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis that included phony, apparently AI-generated pull quotes attributed to real film critics, Lionsgate has issued an apology and ceremonially fired a marketing consultant.The fast-food chain Chick-Fil-a plans to launch a streaming service, which will apparently include game shows and reality programming.FESTIVALSAhead of its premiere this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival, we are pleased to share the first poster for Sofia Bohdanowicz's Measures for a Funeral (2024), designed by Charlotte Gosch of studio other types.

The Oldenburg International Film Festival, often dubbed Germany’s Sundance, will this year pay tribute to one of the country’s most revered filmmakers, Dominik Graf, with a special retrospective.

The 31st edition of the festival, running from Sept. 11 to 15, will spotlight Graf’s prolific career, as one of Germany’s few masters in genre filmmaking.

Graf, 71, began his career in the 1970s, inspired by American indie directors like Sam Fuller and Robert Aldrich and French auteurs such as Jean-Pierre Melville, using arthouse techniques and storytelling for crime, comedy and other genre tales.

The festival’s retrospective will showcase six of Graf’s most influential films, including thrillers Die Katze (1988) and Die Sieger (1995/2018 director’s cut), both of which have become genre-defining in German cinema and exemplify Graf’s distinctive, taut, economical approach to plot and character.

Alongside his feature film work, Graf is credited with setting new standards for...

It had been over two decades since Hong Kong director John Woo stunned audiences with his hyper-stylized action classic, The Killer. Released in 1989, the film pushed boundaries with its balletic gunplay and tragic melodrama. Chow Yun-fat gave an unforgettable performance as a dedicated assassin struggling between his deadly profession and humanity. With influences like Jean-Pierre Melville, Sergio Leone, and John Cassavetes, Woo pioneered what became known as “Heroic Bloodshed.” He brought swift-paced action and complex character drama together in a wholly unique way.

Hollywood soon came calling for Woo to export his brand of mayhem stateside. Films like Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Mission Impossible 2 dazzled worldwide crowds with the director’s expertly staged set pieces. However, it had been 20 years since Woo last delivered a stand-alone Hong Kong production. Fans wondered if he’d ever return to the wellspring of his signature style.

In 2024, that question was answered. With a...

A remake of John Woo’s groundbreaking action movie “The Killer” has been in the works since shortly after it premiered in 1989, but it took until 2024 for it to finally materialize — from Woo himself.

Over the years a number of filmmakers took a stab at adapting the beloved Hong Kong action movie, about a hitman (played by frequent Woo collaborator Chow Yun-Fat) who accidentally blinds a young girl, including “Alien” principals Walter Hill and David Giler, “Top Gun” writers Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., and Korean-American filmmaker John H. Lee. There would be announcements made every so often, but very little forward momentum.

While development creeped along, Woo made his way to Hollywood, directing a series of highly regarded, star-filled action movies like “Hard Target,” “Broken Arrow” and “Mission: Impossible II,” which grossed more than half a billion dollars worldwide back in 2000. The style he developed in Hong Kong...

Some people think remakes have to be as good as or even better than the original to be worth making, but that’s a high bar and it’s covered in vaseline. All a remake actually has to do is justify its own existence. Maybe it’s got a new style, maybe it’s got a new context, but either way there just needs to be some reason to watch this new version instead of the old one, at least once.

Unfortunately, the only reason I can think of to watch John Woo’s Peacock-exclusive remake of “The Killer” is because it’s the only version that’s currently available on streaming. It’s not good filmmaking and that’s not even good capitalism. The law of supply and demand falls apart when the only supply most people can access is of inferior quality.

The original “The Killer,” also directed by Woo,...

It’s been more than 30 years since John Woo first came to Hollywood, and it often feels like he’s been looking for a way back to Hong Kong ever since — or at least a way back to the iconic action filmmaker he was when he worked there in the ’80s and early ’90s. Orgiastically blending the muted cool of a Jean-Pierre Melville neo-noir with the explosive melodrama of a Martin Scorsese crime epic and the florid grandiosity of a Chinese opera, Woo’s elevated style clashed with the meat-and-potatoes ethos of American blockbusters. The same ecstasy that defined Cantonese-language classics like “Hard Boiled” and “A Better Tomorrow” seemed more like self-parody after being translated into “Mission: Impossible 2,” and last year’s dreadfully generic “Silent Night” suggested that Woo had lost whatever was left of his voice as an artist.

Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly filled with...

Alain Delon influenced Asian actors and directors, including Hong Kong directors John Woo (The Killer) and Johnnie To. These filmmakers admired Alain Delon when he played gangsters in Melville’s films.

Johnnie To wanted to work with Alain Delon. He offered him the lead role of Vengeance, that of Francis Costello in 1967, as an allusion to Jeff Costello in Le Samouraï, which was played by Alain Delon. After Alain Delon refused, Johnny Hallyday was chosen by Johnnie To. Vengeance made its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2009. It is screened at the Festival International des Cinémas d’Asie in Vesoul as part of a retrospective devoted to Asian films.

In the comedy You Shoot, I Shoot by Hong Kong director Pang Ho-Cheung, actor Eric Kot plays a hired gun who identified himself as Jef Costello. He dresses like him and talks to him through a poster of...

It is with great sadness that we report legendary French actor Alain Delon has died at the age of 88. Widely hailed as the most beautiful movie star of all time thanks to his ocean blue eyes and statuesque, sculpted cheekbones, Delon — star of Le Samourai, Plein Soleil, Rocco And His Brothers and much, much more — brought an insouciant cool to cinema on- and off-screen, and an ineffable capacity to convey the depths of a brooding soul in the level of those self-same eyes. Delon passed away at his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and family, on 18 August.

Born on 8 November 1935 to cinema projectionist (and later La Régina cinema director) father François Fabien Delon and pharmacist and cinema usher mother Édith Marie Suzanne Arnold, you could say that the movies ran in Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon's blood. After a turbulent series of school expulsions, spells in prison,...

The legendary, and legendarily handsome, international movie star Alain Delon passed away on Sunday, August 18, 2024. He was 88.

Delon was best known for playing heavies and tough guys, but he had incredible range, portraying all kinds of roles in his 60-plus-year career. Most American film students have experienced the bolt of electricity seeing Delon for the first time in an acclaimed international hit like René Clément's Tom Ripley adaptation "Purple Noon," or Luchino Visconti's "Rocco and his Brothers" (1960) or the same director's massive historical epic "The Leopard" (1963). Delon made several films with Clément, and was often paired with most of the best European directors of his generation, including Michelangelo Antonioni (he was in "L'Eclisse"), Louis Malle ("Spirits of the Dead"), Joseph Losey ("The Assassination of Trotsky"), Agnès Varda ("One Hundred and One Nights"), and even Jean-Luc Godard ("New Wave"). Anyone with a subscription to the Criterion Channel has likely...

Cinema isn’t a beauty contest, but if it were, Alain Delon surely would have won the title of the 1960s’ most handsome actor.

That’s a subjective call, of course, and as such, Delon is the kind of figure about whom writers tend to fall back on the word “arguably” — as in, “arguably the most handsome” — which is kind of a cop-out, as it leaves the argument to somebody else. When it comes to Delon, plenty have made the case. I loved Anthony Lane’s longform analysis of Delon’s allure in The New Yorker earlier this year. And none other than Jane Fonda, who co-starred with Delon in 1964’s “Joy House,” described him as “the most beautiful human being.”

The French star, who died Sunday, made more than 100 movies in a career that spanned 50 years, but for that one transformative decade in film history — beginning with the Patricia Highsmith...

The death of Alain Delon leaves a 70-year body of onscreen work to be admired.

Following the French screen legend’s death at age 88 on Sunday, fans are remembering the memorable performances he served with such directors as Jean-Luc Godard, Luchino Visconti and Jean-Pierre Melville, earning a Palme d’Or and being inducted into France’s Legion of Honour during his storied career.

After a rough upbringing and serving in the First Indochina War, Delon was discovered at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, despite having no training as an actor.

“I came down with a girl that I liked, who loved me… I took it all in, did the red carpet but even then, I felt at home… not least and I say this without pretension because it was made clear to me that I was not bad looking,” he told a Cannes masterclass in 2019.

Amid his affair with actress Michèle Cordoue,...

Alain Delon, the striking French leading man known for his uncommonly beautiful, coldly calculating villains in Le Samouraï and Purple Noon, has died. As confirmed by his family to France’s Afp news agency, Delon died Sunday after years of health complications stemming from a 2019 stroke. He was 88.An icon of French cinema,...

Alain Delon, one of the biggest international movie stars of all time, has passed away at 88. The actor, who’d been in poor health in recent years, is widely considered one of the most iconic French stars ever. First rising to fame as part of a new crop of actors during the French New Wave, Delon was the first person to play Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley in Purple Noon, while also starring in classics such as The Leopard, Rocco and His Sisters and many more.

Yet, it was his role as the cold, calculating hitman in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai which remains the part he’s arguably best known for. Playing an impeccably dressed killer named Jeff, who is double-crossed by his employers, pretty much every hitman movie in the last fifty years owes a debt of gratitude to his performance. Chow Yun-Fat’s style in A Better Tomorrow...

Alain Delon, the influential French actor who starred in European cinematic classics like Le Samourai and The Leopard, has died at the age of 88.

The actor’s children confirmed his death Sunday in a statement to Afp (via BBC), “Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family.”

A box office star and heartthrob actor in his native France and across Europe throughout the Sixties and Seventies,...

Alain Delon, the legendary actor and sex symbol who dominated French cinemas in the 1960s in films like “Le Samouraï” and “Purple Noon,” has died at the age of 88. The news was shared via a statement to Afp. Delon passed away in his longtime home in Douchy, France.

“He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” the statement said. Per Deadline, French president Emmanuel Macron said in a translated statement, “Mr. Klein or Rocco, the Leopard or the Samurai, Alain Delon has played legendary roles and made the world dream. Lending his unforgettable face to shake up our lives. Melancholic, popular, secretive, he was more than a star: a French monument.”

Delon first rose to prominence in the 1959 comedy “Women Are Weak,” which was a major hit in France and frequently screened in America. But his status as a serious actor...

Alain Delon, the French actor who became a screen icon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, has died aged 88.

Delon died “peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family”, according to a statement released to the Afp news agency by his family.

As well as his famous role as professional hitman Jef Costello in Le Samourai, Delon collaborated with Melville in 1970 heist The Red Circle and 1975 crime thriller Flic Story.

Delon’s career began after he was spotted at Cannes Film Festival in 1957 by US talent agent Henry Willson, recruiting on behalf of David O. Selznick.

Alain Delon, the French actor most famous for his roles in the films of New Wave director Jean-Pierre Melville, especially “Le Samourai,” has died. He was 88.

“He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” according to a statement released to the Afp news agency by his family.

In addition to “Le Samourai,” Delon also appeared in Melville’s brilliant heist film “Le Cercle rouge” and “Un Flic.”

Some of his other significant films were Rene Clement’s “Purple Noon”; Visconti’s “Rocco and His Brothers” and “The Leopard”; Antonioni’s “L’Eclisse”; Jose Giovanni’s “Two Men in Town”; and Joseph Losey’s “Mr. Klein.”

Although he triggered some controversies during the later part of his life due to his public comments on adoption of children by same-sex parents and affinity with far-right politicians, many prominent figures in France and abroad paid...

French acting star Alain Delon, whose many iconic roles included Le Samouraï, Plein Soleil and The Leopard, has died in France at the age of 88.

The actor’s children said in a statement that their father had passed away in the early hours of Sunday, surrounded by his family and beloved Belgian Shepherd Loubo, in his long-time chateau home in the village of Douchy, in the Le Loiret region some 100 miles south of Paris.

Delon’s death marks the passing of one of the last surviving icons of the French cinema scene of the 1960s and 70s, when the country was on an economic roll as it reconstructed in the wake of World War II.

Related: French Pres. Emmanuel Macron Leads Tributes To Alain Delon: “More Than A Star, A Monument”

The star, who was at the peak of this career from the 1960s to the 1980s, fell into acting by chance.

Alain Delon, the dark and dashing leading man from France who starred in some of the greatest European films of the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 88.

“Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as (his dog) Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed away peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family,” a statement from the family released to Afp news agency said.

Delon had been suffering from poor health in recent years and had a stroke in 2019.

With a filmography boasting such titles as Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), René Clément’s Purple Noon (1960), Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Eclipse (1962), Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein (1976) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï (1967) and The Red Circle (1970), Delon graced several art house movies now considered classics.

His tense and stoical performances, often as...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Fidelio, our four-film program with Chapo Trap House’s Movie Mindset, begins this Saturday with Eyes Wide Shut on 35mm, which plays again on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

70mm prints of 2001 and Lawrence of Arabia screen.

Film at Lincoln Center

A retrospective of Mexican popular cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s continues and a new restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s Moving opens.

Film Forum

A career-spanning Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective continues, as do restorations of Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams and Seven Samurai.

Anthology Film Archives

Films by James Benning, Robert Bresson, and Jean Eustache screen in “Verbatim“; films by James Broughton play in “Essential Cinema.”

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die and Mapantsula continue screening in new restorations.

Museum of Modern Art

“Silent Movie Week 2024” begins

IFC Center

“Defamed to Acclaimed” brings films by the Wachowskis,...

We here at IndieWire love watching films on actual film — and cities like New York and Los Angeles, where repertory cinema is thriving, provide no shortage of opportunities to do just that. Scoping out selections in both major metropolises, we’ve compiled a list of the best screening options for the upcoming month, which include retrospectives on beloved auteurs featuring multiple 35mm prints, as well as 4K restorations of classic films that shouldn’t be missed.

In keeping with our appreciation for the theatrical experience throughout the country and world, IndieWire also gives a special shoutout to The Brattle Theatre of Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as some of its stellar curation over the next month. Keep reading for our picks.

New York Film Forum ‘Blacula,’ William Marshall Courtesy Everett Collection

In anticipation of the new 4K restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville’s WWII French resistance drama “Army of Shadows,” which will...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

A retrospective of Mexican popular cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s is underway.

Film Forum

A career-spanning Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective has begun; restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, Fitzcarraldo and Seven Samurai continue.

Museum of the Moving Image

A 70mm print of Playtime screens this weekend; The Color of Pomegranates and Speed Racer play.

Anthology Film Archives

Robert Bresson plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die continues screening in a new restoration; Mapantsula begins playing.

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues.

IFC Center

The Time Masters, Amadeus, and In the Mood for Love play daily; Fritz the Cat, Friday the 13th, The Last House on the Left, and The Matrix play late.

Metrograph...

U.K.-based sales and distribution company Blue Finch Films has secured worldwide rights to “Zero,” an action thriller directed by Jean Luc Herbulot, known for his 2021 TIFF Midnight Madness selection “Saloum.”

The film has been selected for Sitges Film Festival’s first wave, with additional festival announcements expected.

“Zero” follows two Americans who awaken in Senegal with explosive devices attached to their bodies and a 10-hour deadline to uncover the reason. Guided by a mysterious voice on the phone, they must complete a series of tasks that inadvertently cause chaos in Dakar. Against a backdrop of growing anti-Western sentiment, the protagonists race against time for survival and redemption.

The screenplay was co-written by Herbulot and Hus Miller, with Miller also producing alongside Paméla Diop, Steven Adams and Gary Dourdan. The cast includes Miller, Cam McHarg, Moran Rosenblatt, Roger Sallah and Dourdan.

Herbulot said: “I have always admired Sergio Leone’s Westerns,...

Every filmmaker wants the perfect opening shot; but then, can the rest of the film live up to it? Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samuraï is one such film, that gives not just an iconic opening shot, but many in between, with a story, performances, and a mood that makes it a classic of european crime noir. Arguably the european crime noir. Criterion Collection have recently re-issued the film, with a fresh blu-ray and 4K disc, and some choice extras for the discerning cinephile. Melville only made a small number of films (sadly passing away much too young before the age of 60), and while they are all good, Le Samuraï has long been considered his greatest work, and with good reason. The presentation of this hit...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï concerns perfection of form and etiquette as a way of life. For Melville, perfection means the absence of extraneousness, especially in terms of professionalism and art. Jef Costello (Alain Delon) lives in a bare and gray apartment that’s so comically Dickensian in its austerity that he can almost immediately discern where an enemy has bugged the place. When Jef isn’t killing people for money, he lies in bed and smokes and listens to the melancholy chatter of his caged bird, informing loneliness with the sort of grandeur that we project onto ourselves when we’re convinced that we’re the saddest people alive. Jef embraces the solitude of the Japanese samurai as technically established by the Bushido, but, more likely, as defined by the cinema of Kurosawa Akira.

Melville’s films celebrate code of conduct as a self-justifying reward—a notion that enjoys...

Art print by Aleksander Walijewski for Poor Things.In the last roundup, from October, three out of the four most popular posters on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram over the previous six months were posters for Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things (2023)—two teasers and an official-release poster, all by the great Vasilis Marmatakis—which at that time was still almost two months away from its US theatrical run. So it's no surprise that the most "liked" poster since then is also a poster for Poor Things, an art print by the young, prodigiously talented Polish artist-designer Aleksander Walijewski. What was a surprise, however, is that this poster has racked up more than 10,000 likes since early February, making it by far the most popular poster ever on my Instagram, doubling its nearest competitor (Marmatakis’s original Poor Things teaser). And, making it feel as if Movie Poster of the...

Studiocanal have put together a lovely package for this re-release of the Jean-Pierre Melville classic. It offers a 4k restoration of the film, supervised by DoP Pierre Lhomme, which certainly brings out the bleak blue-dominated palette of the film.

Previous editions of the film have included a commentary track by Professor Ginnette Vincendeau. This time out, that has disappeared into the shadows but there are two substantial background extras instead.

Army Of Shadows...The Hidden Side Of The Story first appeared on the 2013 release of the film and it's an excellent guide to the ins and outs of Melville's attitude and the way he worked with the actors on the set. Interviewees include the producer Jacques Dorfman and the DoP along with Olivier Bohler, who directed documentary Code Name: Melville and who proves an informative guide to Melville's motivations. Actors Alain Mottet, Alain Libolt, and Claude Mann also provide some excellent.

Ever consider whether the most accomplished directors in Hollywood share a mutual admiration for one another? Amidst this mutual reverence, we recently learned about a fascinating anecdote: The acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker & master of intense action, John Woo, once declared his adoration for the legendary Martin Scorsese.

John Woo’s The Killer | Golden Princess Film Production

With a career that has lit up theaters with films like Mission: Impossible 2 and A Better Tomorrow, Woo’s admiration for Scorsese’s work goes beyond rivalry, allowing viewers to delve into a moving homage given in the former’s classic film The Killer. Despite receiving positive reviews for its lavish style and action scenes, this 1989 masterwork did not openly succeed in Hong Kong but went on to win over critics all over the world.

The Killer: A Cinematic Homage to Martin Scorsese, by John Woo

John Woo, the iconic director known for...

Seemingly from out of nowhere, actor turned director Gilles Lellouche throws a Molotov Flanby into the Competition with only his second feature, a terrific and unexpectedly potent piece of genre filmmaking that could, to avoid spoilers, be described as a kind of mash-up of Badlands and La Haine, as if directed by Walter Hill. Throw in a little Eurocrime, from the likes of Fernando Di Leo and late-period Jean-Pierre Melville, and you’re getting close to what Lellouche has achieved here, a romantic banlieue opera that delivers all the gritty, vicarious thrills of the now-standard post-Goodfellas gangster movie but also burrows into issues of class and gender in refreshingly unpredictable ways.

It arrives as a movie seemingly made by committee, since the film is based on an Irish novel — Jackie Love Johnser Ok? by Neville Thompson — and features contributions by fellow filmmakers Ahmed Hamidi and Audrey Diwan. It quickly...

Midway through Bob Clark’s Deathdream (originally titled Dead of Night), Andy Brooks (Richard Backus) dons a pair of black leather gloves and sunglasses for an upcoming date. Andy displays a suave and calm demeanor that should be familiar to fans of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film Le Samouraï, which features Alain Delon as the ne plus ultra of psychotic cool; his haircut even recalls that of Steve McQueen in 1968’s Bullitt. However, Andy’s garb has a tactile purpose, concealing as it does his deteriorating skin, which will turn to dust without a replenishing supply of blood. Because of this, Clark’s genre film goes in the opposite direction of peddling cool, as Deathdream shows how a pair of designer shades can only momentarily shield the irreparable physical and psychological scars of war.

That Deathdream is a vehement anti-war statement can only be ascertained gradually, as Andy’s parents, Charles...

The entrance to the Palais in Cannes was closed briefly Saturday afternoon after a bomb scare due to a “suspicious” item.

The Cannes press office confirmed that there was a suspicious package found on the street but not inside the Palais.

Police officers shut down part of the Croisette, the street that runs in front of the Palais, and prevented pedestrians from crossing in either direction. A specialist police unit was observed inspecting a rucksack in the middle of the crosswalk. Both La Croisette and the Palais entrance were reopened at 3.10 p.m. local time.

“There was something they thought was a bomb, but there was no bomb,” a woman manning the Information Desk at the Marche told Variety. “They closed the street when I was going to lunch, but then I heard it’s open again by the time I came back.”

Another woman working for the festival’s security office said,...

French crime films of the 1950s and ’60s often centered on professional criminals who followed codes of honor that put them on a more-or-less level moral playing field with the detectives tracking them down. Whether it was Jean Gabin’s aging gangster Max in Jacques Becker’s Touchez Pas au Grisbi or Alain Delon’s steely eyed assassin Jef in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï, these men had a sophistication and moral grounding that minimized the violence and chaos they caused. They were dangerous, even deadly, but only when they needed to be and in a way the cops could wrap their heads’ around.

Fun City Editions’s new Blu-ray set, Seeing Red: 3 French Vigilante Thrillers, consists of a trio of films that play like French twists on the hyper-violent Italian poliziotteschi crime films that reached the height of their popularity in the ’70s. In Jean-Claude Missiaen’s Shot Pattern,...

Two years after he leapt to the forefront of the New Hollywood with The Godfather, and just months before he picked up the threads of that operatic crime saga with the magnificent sequel/prequel The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola released a quiet movie, one in which sound itself — and, more specifically, its surreptitious recording — is the narrative engine. Arriving during a particularly fertile era for American film, The Conversation was not a hit, but it is one of the period’s most subtle and shattering features. Half a century later, it resounds as hauntingly as ever, not merely as a cautionary tale but as a searing portrait of where we are now.

The movie took its New York bow on Coppola’s 35th birthday, April 7, 1974, a few weeks before its Palme d’Or triumph in Cannes. Today the octogenarian writer-director is again preparing to compete on the Croisette,...

While it was fascinating to see the results of the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, we’re just as curious to see what lies outside the established canon. As part of a comprehensive project at the essential resource They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?, Ángel González polled nearly 839 critics on the best films that didn’t receive a single vote on the Sight & Sound poll, which they’ve now compiled into a massive Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon, which initially features 1,030 films but expands to a whopping 14,558 total films.

As a preview, we’ve collected the films that received at least 20 votes in this new poll, which is 263. It’s led by Spike Jonze’s Her, and they’ve also noted the directors that were most represented. Fritz Lang leads the pack with eight films mentioned, while François Truffaut has seven, and Anthony Mann, Clint Eastwood, Eric Rohmer, John Ford, Samuel Fuller,...

Spoiler Alert: The following essay discusses key plot points, including the ending.

Last weekend, I took in “Le Samouraï” for what must have been the sixth or seventh time, relishing the new 4K restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece (now playing at Laemmle theaters in Los Angeles). As I exited the screening, I discreetly eavesdropped on my fellow audience members. Most seemed impressed. A few were still processing what they’d seen: an existential study of a lone killer, told with radically little dialogue. “That wasn’t at all what I expected,” one woman told her friend. “I thought we were going to see some kind of samurai movie.”

It’s a reasonable assumption, given the film’s title, although the 1967 crime classic takes place half a world away, in Paris, almost exactly a century after Japan’s samurai era came to an end. I first saw “Le Samouraï” in the late ’90s,...

With “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.), March came in like a lion. With “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (also Warner Bros.), March is going out, well, as a lion. Leave the lamb for Easter dinner.

With an estimated $80 million (actual totals may be higher), Legendary Entertainment’s second big franchise sequel this month falls just shy of the $82 million debut for “Dune 2.” Warner Bros. now looks near certain to have three $200 million and over films since December — the only distributor to achieve that since July.

This could be the best weekend of the year so far, with a tentative estimate of $136.4 million. That includes four films over $10 million, the first time that’s happened this year. All told, this boosted the 2024 year to date; we’re now down by only six percent.

With “Godzilla x Kong,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Kung Fu Panda 4” (Universal) and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (Sony) all opening over $40 million,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook.NEWSNostalgia.Industry experts warn that digital cinema files are not being properly maintained (“You have an entire era of cinema that’s in severe danger of being lost”), emphasizing the importance of amateur preservation efforts like Rarefilmm, recently profiled on Notebook.After a caucus week of intra-union meetings, negotiations between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers continued, with their current contract set to expire on July 31. This week’s discussions focused on specific proposals from each of the 13 West Coast locals, starting with the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600.Vision du Réel has announced the full program for its 55th edition, running April 12 to 21 in Nyon, Switzerland. The competition slate includes mostly first features.In PRODUCTIONLittle Shop of Horrors.

Whatever the idea of “canonized” suggests, few films of such order are quite so well-liked and perpetually referenced (or just ripped-off) as Le Samouraï, leaving me somewhat surprised we haven’t yet had a 4K treatment in the United States. But it was just a matter of time, and Jean-Pierre Melville’s ice-cold thriller now receives its due: Criterion and Pathé returned to the original 35mm negative for a restoration Film Forum debuts in a two-week run starting March 29.

Ahead of this comes a trailer that, even accounting for streaming compression, suggests the spectacular––Melville’s cool palette luminous as ever, the mono sound punchier than Criterion’s old DVD.

Find the new preview and poster below:

Professional hitman Delon lies fully-clothed in his threadbare monochrome apartment, then goes off to a day at the office: stealing a car, killing a man in a nightclub, setting up an ironclad alibi,...

"What kind of man is he?" Janus Films has revealed a brand new trailer for the 4K restoration re-release of an all-timer hitman classic called Le Samouraï. This French noir thriller first opened in France in 1967, only showing up in the US in 1972. It is widely considered one of the best assassin films ever made, and is often referenced by many great filmmakers in terms of style and minimalism. After professional hitman Jef Costello is seen by witnesses, his efforts to provide himself an alibi drive him further into a corner. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï stars French legend Alain Delon as Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. The cast also includes François Périer, Nathalie Delon, and Caty Rosier. Roger Ebert wrote a 4 star review in 1997, stating: "The movie teaches us how action is the enemy of suspense--how action releases tension, instead of building it. Better to wait for...

Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Away begins with hired killer John “Aristotle” Knox (Keaton) in his car, cruising through the night to the sound of a mournful saxophone. It seems like we’re gearing up for one of those long, dark nights of the soul that neo-noir thrillers thrive on, but the film proves unwilling to really drive forward into the darkness. In the end, it’s a tale of male alienation that’s a little too afraid of alienating its audience.

Knox lives alone, only interacting with other members of his morbid industry and Annie (Joanna Kulig), the Polish sex worker who comes to visit him once a week. He carries out each of his jobs with cold precision, before then stashing the money he earns with the utmost care. It’s the perfect role for Keaton, given his unique intermingling of intensity and offbeat charm, and he benefits...