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Credits
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Summary
A once notorious gangster named Gu escapes from prison and returns to Paris
to rejoin his former mistress, Manouche. Having killed the two men
who are blackmailing Manouche, Gu goes into hiding, before embarking on
a hold-up to raise some desperately needed money. He is pursued by
the equally ruthless Commissaire Blot...Review
The familiar Melvillian themes of honour, loyalty and redemption underpin this
hard-edged crime thriller which sees the formidable pairing of Lino Ventura
and Paul Meurisse, two redoutable heavyweights of French cinema of the
1950s and '60s, the Golden Age of the French film noir.
Although it treads on the same ground of many of Melville’s other films (most noticeably Le Samouraï, which the director made a year after this film), Le Deuxième souffle is both a gripping and disturbing crime drama in which the morality of the criminal and his police opponent are subtly reversed. Strong performances and crisp direction makes this Jean-Pierre Melville’s best films, a rare masterpiece of the gangster thriller genre. In distinct contrast to Melville's later films (from Le Samouraï onwards), in which a stylised existentialist approach prevails, Le Deuxième souffle is well and truly anchored in the real world of the gangster mentality, soaked in greed, deceit, vengeance and blood. Convincing acting, photographed in the neo-realist style favoured by Melville at the time, heightens the dramatic suspense, and often shocks its audience with the ferocity of the violence. Never is the shady world of Jean-Pierre Melville so real, so brutal and so chilling. Only a few European gangster films come anywhere near to rivalling the quality and impact of the earlier Amercian film noir classics. Le Deuxième souffle is one rare example of a film that not only equals the earlier American films of the genre which inspired it but which actually surpasses it. The film is so enveloping, so complete, so intense, that it has to be considered a work of art. © James Travers 2001 |
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