Good Morning, World

Even though it's a sad way to start out the week we obviously must take a moment to memorialize Alain Delon, the French superstar and "most beautiful men ever captured on film" says me, who died over the weekend at the too young age of 88. Actually given how shitty his political stuff had gotten in the past few years maybe it wasn't too young, but I liked he was still around -- especially after losing Belmondo in '21 -- and since I'm not living in France I could easily ignore the right-wing shit he'd been saying. Out of earshot, out of mind -- I could just watch Purple Noon in peace. Even more so now -- the bad stuff will fade away with his actual person and we'll be left with his astonishing cinematic output. For such a pretty face he sure turned in some legendary performances in legendary films. He certainly wasn't restrained by his beauty.

I think the much discussed "cruel edge" his beauty carried aided him in that regard -- he certainly wasn't bland in his prettiness. I only just watched Melville's Le Samouraï a couple of weeks ago for the very first time (Criterion just dropped the 4K and iut's gorgeous) and as cool as he looks in that trenchcoat and fedora it's not a film that especially leans hard on his beauty -- it feels more concerned with his symmetry, his sharp angles. Melville shoots him like a pencil sketch of a human. Anyway tell me your favorite Alain Delon performances in the comments, if you like! Peronally I'll always love his Ripley the most, I think. But La Piscine, The Leopard, Rocco and His Brothers, L'Eclisse -- you can't go wrong. I'm curious if there are performances later in his career that you consider must see? Like I don't think I've seen anything he did after the 1970s! Did he just coast on being Alain Delon all that time? I mean he earned that. he was Alain Delon after all. But he kept working until 2019. Any recommendations?