Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune), a samurai warrior, is accompanying a Japanese diplomat to the US. They are carrying a golden, jewel-encrusted sword to present as a token of goodwill to the president, however they are ambushed by two outlaws - Gauche (Alain Delon) and Link (Charles Bronson). When Gauche double-crosses Link and keeps the sword for himself, Link joins forces with Kuroda to return the sword to its rightful owner.

This film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni completed a trilogy about doomed relationships in the modern world, and won the 1962 Cannes Special Jury Prize. Vittoria (Monica Vitti) is a young woman who breaks up with her lover Ricardo (Francisco Rabal), a bookish intellectual, and instead takes up with brash stockbroker Piero (Alain Delon). However, there are still emotional ties between Vittoria and Ricardo. The final breakdown of Vittoria's emotional state is symbolically mirrored by Antonioni's montage of a deserted, dying city.

Pre-New Wave French film noir thriller directed by René Clément, based on the novel 'The Talented Mr Ripley' by Patricia Highsmith and shot on the warm and glowing Mediterranean coast. Alain Delon stars in his debut leading role as Tom Ripley, a young American who is paid by the wealthy Greenleaf family to travel to Europe to persuade his friend, errant playboy Philip Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to the family home in San Francisco. When he gets there, Tom discovers that Philip has it all - including a beautiful fiancée, Marge (Marie Laforet) - and begins to covet his luxurious lifestyle. Philip, initially amused by Tom's arrival, soon tires of him, and as Tom begins to find himself excluded from Philip's coterie, his envy takes a murderous turn. Highsmith's novel was later adapted by Hollywood as 'The Talented Mr Ripley' (1999) starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Jean-Pierre Melville's last film stars Alain Delon as Police Commissioner Coleman who finds himself playing a game of cat and mouse with a gang of thieves after a bank robbery in a small Riviera town goes wrong. The gang is led by Coleman's friend, Simon (Richard Crenna), a night-club owner and whose girlfriend (Catherine Deneuve) is also having an affair with Coleman. The two men find the rivalry between them increasing as the net begins to surround Simon. A stylish European take on the Hollywood storylines of the Seventies.

Kuroda (Toshiro Mifune), a samurai warrior, is accompanying a Japanese diplomat to the US. They are carrying a golden, jewel-encrusted sword to present as a token of goodwill to the president, however they are ambushed by two outlaws - Gauche (Alain Delon) and Link (Charles Bronson). When Gauche double-crosses Link and keeps the sword for himself, Link joins forces with Kuroda to return the sword to its rightful owner.

This film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni completed a trilogy about doomed relationships in the modern world, and won the 1962 Cannes Special Jury Prize. Vittoria (Monica Vitti) is a young woman who breaks up with her lover Ricardo (Francisco Rabal), a bookish intellectual, and instead takes up with brash stockbroker Piero (Alain Delon). However, there are still emotional ties between Vittoria and Ricardo. The final breakdown of Vittoria's emotional state is symbolically mirrored by Antonioni's montage of a deserted, dying city.

Pre-New Wave French film noir thriller directed by René Clément, based on the novel 'The Talented Mr Ripley' by Patricia Highsmith and shot on the warm and glowing Mediterranean coast. Alain Delon stars in his debut leading role as Tom Ripley, a young American who is paid by the wealthy Greenleaf family to travel to Europe to persuade his friend, errant playboy Philip Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to return to the family home in San Francisco. When he gets there, Tom discovers that Philip has it all - including a beautiful fiancée, Marge (Marie Laforet) - and begins to covet his luxurious lifestyle. Philip, initially amused by Tom's arrival, soon tires of him, and as Tom begins to find himself excluded from Philip's coterie, his envy takes a murderous turn. Highsmith's novel was later adapted by Hollywood as 'The Talented Mr Ripley' (1999) starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.