One of the silver screen’s great sex symbols, Alain Delon was an aloof pretty boy who brought a cool confidence to stylish French gangster movies. As part of its tribute to director Jean-Pierre Melville, the AFI Silver is screening Le Samouraï, a 1967 masterpiece that provided the actor with one of his signature roles—and one of his coolest. Delon plays Jef Costello, a Paris hitman who survives by refusing to form attachments—hence the title, explained by a fictional quotation about the loneliness of the samurai. But when a bold assassination in a swanky jazz club goes wrong, Jef is forced to evade the cops and his employers. Even if you’ve never seen Le Samouraï before, if you’ve seen enough action movies you’ve seen its influence on such directors as Walter Hill, John Woo, and Quentin Tarantino. Delon and Melville defined the cinematic myth of the alienated assassin, and this is where it began. Read more>>> The film screens at 9:20 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8–$13. (301) 495-6700. afi.com/silver. (Pat Padua)

OH AND ALSO

Jazz vocalist Gregory Porter joins the National Symphony Orchestra for a performance at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. 8 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. $29–$99.

Author Anna-Lisa Cox speaks at Politics and Prose at The Wharf about her book The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality, which chronicles the westward expansion of thousands of black settlers. 7 p.m. at 70 District Square SW. Free.

Rock icon and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler performs at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap. 8 p.m. at 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. $45–$125.

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