Alain Delon, Godfather of the Belted Trench
The New York Times
As a titan of French cinema, he dressed the part, even when playing a killer.
Alain Delon, the French film star who died on Sunday at 88, was not big on smiling.
He smiles little in “Le Cercle Rouge,” the 1970 caper in which he plays the mastermind of a jewel heist.
He smiles little in “La Piscine,” the sexy 1969 thriller in which he plays the boyfriend of a woman whose friendship with an older man drives him to madness.
And he smiles little in “Le Samouraï,” the luscious 1967 noir that cemented his status as a titan of French cinema and arguably does as much to glorify fashion as it does a life of crime.
That one opens with a shot of Mr. Delon, as a hit man named Jef Costello, lying fully dressed on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he smokes a cigarette.
The room is dim and bare. The suit he wears is a beautiful cadet gray. The double-breasted trench coat he puts on before exiting onto the street — well, that quickly becomes its own character.
