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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesAlain Delon’s finest films show why he was more than an icon of cool: he could anchor spare crime pictures, sprawling dramas and modernist art cinema with the same magnetic restraint. This ranked watchlist balances his performances, the films’ standing and the range of his collaborations. The order is an editorial judgment, not a universal or officially published ranking.
1. Le samouraï (1967)
Jean-Pierre Melville’s spare crime film is the essential Delon starting point. As Jef Costello, a hit man who moves through Paris with ritual precision, Delon makes stillness and isolation feel like action. The British Film Institute places it alongside Le cercle rouge and Un flic as part of Melville’s crime trilogy with Delon. BFI’s overview of Delon’s films also situates his star image within postwar French popular cinema.
![Night Train Murders [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FoPK5GyzL._SL160_.jpg)
2. Purple Noon / Plein soleil (1960)
René Clément’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley made Delon an international screen presence. His Tom Ripley is charming, watchful and increasingly dangerous; the film’s sunlit Mediterranean setting makes the character’s appetite for another life all the more unsettling. The Festival de Cannes describes it as the film in which Delon burst onto the scene. Cannes’s 2019 tribute places it at the beginning of his celebrated career.
3. Rocco and His Brothers / Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960 or 1961)
Luchino Visconti’s family drama gives Delon a role very different from the solitary criminals for which he became famous. He plays Rocco, one of five brothers whose migration from southern Italy to Milan brings hope, rivalry and tragedy. The film’s release year varies by catalog and convention: Cannes lists it among Delon’s Cannes Classics titles, while sources may label it 1960 or 1961. Cannes’s Delon profile includes the film in its career record.
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![Borsalino (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+hSdBxYfL._SL160_.jpg)
- Borsalino
- Tipo di prodotto: ABIS_DVD
4. The Leopard / Il Gattopardo (1963)
Visconti’s sumptuous adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel follows an aristocratic Sicilian family as political change reshapes its world. Delon plays Tancredi, the ambitious young nephew of Burt Lancaster’s Prince of Salina. His polished, self-possessed presence suits a film preoccupied with inheritance, reinvention and the costs of adapting to a new order. Cannes singles out the film among Delon’s major collaborations.
5. Mr. Klein (1976)
Joseph Losey’s drama is one of Delon’s most unsettling performances. He plays Robert Klein, a Paris art dealer whose comfortable life is disrupted when he is mistaken for a Jewish man targeted by the Vichy regime. The mounting bureaucratic nightmare turns the question of identity into a moral test. Criterion’s film page describes the occupation-era premise and calls Delon’s performance a standout. Cannes reports Delon reflecting on the role: “There is so much of myself in that film.”
6. Le cercle rouge (1970)
Melville’s measured heist film brings Delon together with Gian Maria Volontè and Yves Montand in a story of criminals whose paths converge around a jewel robbery. Its famous, largely wordless heist sequence shows Melville’s command of procedure and suspense; Delon’s Corey is a quiet center of gravity amid the tightening plan. Cannes also identifies the film among Delon’s commercial successes, while the BFI groups it with Le samouraï and Un flic.
Rank #2
7. La piscine (1969)
Jacques Deray’s chamber thriller traps old passions in a villa on the Côte d’Azur. Delon and Romy Schneider play a couple whose uneasy intimacy is disturbed by the arrival of a former lover and his daughter; desire gradually gives way to jealousy and violence. The film’s languid pace and sun-drenched setting make its emotional volatility more unnerving. Criterion’s edition page identifies it as a 1969, 122-minute French-language film and describes that shift from romantic tension to violence.
8. L’eclisse (1962)
Michelangelo Antonioni’s modernist drama casts Delon as Piero, a confident young stockbroker involved with Monica Vitti’s Vittoria. The film is less interested in conventional romantic resolution than in the distance between people and the environments they inhabit. Delon’s polished ease becomes part of that emotional landscape, a counterpoint to the film’s silences and disquiet. It is included in Criterion’s Alain Delon collection.
9. The Sicilian Clan / Le clan des Siciliens (1969)
Henri Verneuil’s stylish crime film makes the most of Delon’s cool presence and his pairing with Jean Gabin. Delon plays Roger Sartet, an escaped criminal drawn into a high-stakes plan by the Sicilian clan of the title. The elaborate scheme and star-led cast make this a strong pick for viewers who want Delon in popular crime cinema rather than art-house introspection. The BFI notes his pairing with Gabin as part of his screen career.
Rank #3
- Alain Delon Mythical films Collection - 14-Disc Box Set ( Il gattopardo / Le Samouraï / Doucement le
- Alain Delon Mythical films Collection - 14-Disc Box Set
- Il gattopardo / Le Samouraï / Doucement les basses / La prima notte di quiete / Tony Arzenta / Deux
- The Leopard / The Samurai / Easy Down There! / Indian Summer / No Way Out / Two Men in Town / Borsal
10. Any Number Can Win / Mélodie en sous-sol (1963)
Verneuil’s heist picture pairs Delon with Gabin again, this time as a younger criminal joining an older ex-con in a casino robbery. Their contrasting styles give the film its appeal: Gabin brings seasoned deliberation, while Delon supplies youthful confidence and sharp edges. The BFI also highlights this collaboration, which offers a useful glimpse of Delon’s appeal in mainstream French crime films.
11. Borsalino (1970)
Jacques Deray’s Marseille gangster film pairs Delon with Jean-Paul Belmondo as two small-time criminals who build a criminal empire. The two stars’ contrasting screen energies give the film much of its momentum, and its period setting lets Delon play a more openly sociable figure than the isolated professional of Le samouraï. The BFI includes the film in its account of Delon’s popular-star image.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstall12. The Unvanquished / L’Insoumis (1964)
Alain Cavalier’s drama is a less obvious Delon choice, and that is part of its value in a watchlist. Delon plays a French Foreign Legion deserter who becomes entangled in a political kidnapping. Cannes notes that Delon produced the film as well as starred in it, while Le Monde includes it among his strongest work. It offers an early view of his involvement behind the camera as well as in front of it.
Rank #4
![Cop's Honor ( Parole de flic ) [ Blu-Ray, Reg.A/B/C Import - Spain ]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ra1GhV26L._SL160_.jpg)
- Cop's Honor ( Parole de flic )
- Cop's Honor
- Parole de flic
13. Un flic (1972)
Melville’s final film with Delon completes the trio with Le samouraï and Le cercle rouge. This time Delon plays police commissioner Edouard Coleman, whose investigation intersects with a gang of robbers. The role reverses the familiar Delon alignment: his composure belongs to the law, while the film’s cool, procedural style keeps the moral lines less comfortable than a simple cop-versus-criminal story.
14. The Joy of Living / Quelle joie de vivre (1961)
René Clément’s comedy-drama broadens the picture of Delon’s early career beyond noir and gangster roles. Set amid the rise of Italian Fascism, it follows a young man caught up in a political plot. Cannes records the film’s place in the Official Selection early in Delon’s career; its inclusion here offers a different register from the crime films that would become his most recognizable screen territory.
15. La prima notte di quiete (1972)
Valerio Zurlini’s drama places Delon in a more melancholic mode as Daniele, a schoolteacher whose unsettled private life shapes his relationship with a young student. The film’s slower, reflective tone extends this list beyond French crime cinema and shows Delon in an Italian production. Cannes includes it among its Cannes Classics titles.
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Where to begin
For Delon’s defining crime persona, start with Le samouraï; for the performance that launched his screen image, choose Purple Noon. Viewers drawn to political and psychological drama should try Mr. Klein or Rocco and His Brothers, while La piscine offers a compact, tense alternative. The ranking reflects a balance of performance, directorial achievement and variety—not a claim that one genre or period contains all of Delon’s best work.
For a physical edition, Criterion’s La piscine Blu-ray Special Edition page lists a new 4K digital restoration, the English-language version The Swimming Pool, a 2019 documentary, interviews, an alternate ending and an essay by Jessica Kiang. These are edition-specific details; the page also lists a DVD edition. The broader Criterion Alain Delon collection includes several films in this list.
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