France still in thrall to its 'sacred monster' Alain Delon

France celebrates the 80th birthday of its greatest screen seducer Alain Delon this weekend with all the circumstance usually accorded to an ageing monarch, still unsure whether he is the lost boy who who never grew up or a cold-hearted heartbreaker. With the anniversary has come a slew of new French and Italian television documentaries puzzle over the enigmatic film idol, who burst onto the international scene as a pretty-boy killer in "Plein Soleil" -- later remade as "The Talented Mr Ripley" -- and cemented his reputation in such classics as Luchino Visconti's "The Leopard". Delon set the template for one of Hollywood's favourite tropes -- the mysterious, cerebral hitman -- with his staggering performance as the silent killer in Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samurai" (1967).

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