Celebrated filmmaker Jacques Deray cast two of the country's most established stars, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, as small-time crooks in a setting of 1930s Marseilles. Borsalino, named after the classic Italian hat company, depicts the murderous rise of two small-time crooks, who slaughter veteran crime bosses to take over the city. However, while Big Brother Paul Muni's thirst for power breeds an unshakable paranoia and distrust within him, Capella (Belmondo) and Siffredi (Delon) remain blood brothers to the last. Ironically it is a woman that brings them together, rather than sets them at odds with each other. With its immaculate sense of style, passionate camaraderie, knockabout humour and unflinching violence, Borsalino proved incredibly influential to a new generation of upcoming Hong Kong filmmakers including John Woo, Tsui Hark and later Johnnie To, instilling their charismatic anti-heroes with the same values of loyalty and friendship, coupled with an immaculate air of stylised cool.