Le Samouraï

Impassive hitman Jef Costello lives in a spartan single-room Paris apartment and keeps a small bird in a cage as a pet. His methodical modus operandi involves creating airtight alibis, including ones provided by his lover, Jane. After carrying out a contract killing on Martey, a nightclub owner, Jef is clearly seen leaving the scene by the club's piano player, Valérie, and glimpsed by several other witnesses. The police bring Jef and other suspects in for an identity parade but the witnesses, including Valérie, fail to positively identify him. Jef is released, but the commissaire suspects him and has him followed. Jef loses the tail and goes to collect his fee for the hit. Instead of paying him, the man he meets tries to kill him, shooting him in the arm. Jef realises that his unknown employers now view him as a liability because he is suspected in Martey's murder. After treating his wound, Jef returns to the nightclub. While he is out, two police officers bug his room, agitating the bird in its cage. After the nightclub closes, Jef has Valérie take him to her home, reasoning that she did not identify him as the killer because his employer had told her not to. Jef asks Valérie who hired him, and she tells him to call her in two hours. The police search Jane's apartment and offer to leave her alone if she recants her alibi for Jef. She flatly rejects the offer. Back at his apartment, Jef notices some loose feathers scattered around his bird's cage and suspects it was agitated by an intrusion. He finds the police bug and deactivates it and then goes to a public phone to call Valérie but she does not answer. When he returns home, he is ambushed by the man who shot him. Holding Jef at gunpoint, the man offers a fresh start. He pays Jef for the hit on Martey, as well as for an upcoming one. Jef overpowers the man and forces him to disclose the identity of his boss; Olivier Rey.