Le deuxième souffle

Plot synopsis:
Widely respected in the criminal world for his ability and loyalty, Gu Minda escapes from prison and heads for Paris to see his devoted sister Manouche and her faithful bodyguard Alban. Her admirer, restaurant owner Jacques, is shot dead by gunmen sent by club owner Jo Ricci, who then sends two men to Manouche's house. Gu catches them there and gives them his trademark execution, which is a country drive in which they are shot and dumped. Commissioner Blot of the Paris police suspects the hand of Gu, who Manouche and Alban then try to smuggle to Italy via Marseille.
Before going, Gu is interested in one last job to put him in funds. An old associate Orloff sends him to Jo Ricci's brother Paul, who is planning to hold up a security van full of platinum bars. It is escorted by two armed policeman, one of whom Gu kills. Commissioner Fardiano of the Marseille police catches Gu and Paul, giving them rough treatment. In an exchange which is secretly recorded, Gu is tricked into admitting that Paul was involved.
Jo Ricci, wanting revenge on Gu for his jailed brother, also sees a chance to get Gu's share of the proceeds. He works on the other two participants in the robbery, who fear Gu may name them as well. To clear his name in the underworld, Gu escapes from the hospital where he is being held and captures Commissioner Fardiano in his car. After being forced to write a confession, which admits maltreatment and clears Gu of informing, he gets Gu's usual execution. Orloff then tells Gu where Jo Ricci is meeting the other two robbers and, in a final gun battle, all four are killed. Searching Gu's body, Commissioner Blot finds the confession, which he drops at the feet of a journalist.

Tags: violence, neo noir, murder

Review:
Jean-Pierre Melville and his long standing infatuation with Hollywood "Film Noir",which he was the most devoted follower of, in entire history of French cinema, produced the whole line of best French crime pictures ever.
Building a story of old school criminals with sense of criminal honesty and honor, around 800 million heist, Melville, tells many stories, from human relations, betrayals and greed, to love and friendship that will go all the way.The dialogs are great.
Witty police inspector Comissaire Blot, beautifully portrayed by Paul Meurisse and Lino Ventura's Gustave "Gu" Minda,play the game of cat and mouse with no unnecessary talk, and no unnecessary action.
Melville devoted a lot of attention to detail, and this film deservedly looks like a crime-action documentary, with no plot holes or "how the hell this or that could have happened" types of questions for the viewer, which is very important for mature audiences that appreciate classic films.
I think that this may be the best film Melville made in the 60's, even better than "Army of Shadows" or the "Samourai",and was the last he made in his own studio that burned up during the production of "Samourai" in 1967, which may explain the possibilities he had, to devote time and attention to details.
Meanwhile the smart Commissary Blot (Paul Meurisse) is investigating a shooting plotted by the mobster Jo Ricci (Marcel Bozzufi) and the gangster Jacques the Lawyer (Raymond Loyer) that is murdered.
Gu decides to travel to Italy but he is short of money; his friend Orloff (Pierre Zimmer) invites him to participate in the heist of an armored truck with his friend Paul Ricci (Raymond Pellegrin) and the gangsters Antoine (Denis Manuel) and Pascal (Pierre Grasset) in Marseille.
"Le Deuxième Soufflé" is a realistic police story by Jean-Pierre Melville with great performances.
not bad at all, actually very good and meticulously structured heist movie, but not great.
I had seen nearly everything that is readily available from Jean-Pierre Melville in the United States by the time I got to Le Deuxieme soufflé, which may be part of why I didn't respond overwhelmingly to it.
After such challenging, methodical and precisely existential crime masterpieces as Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge, Bob le flambeur and the underrated Le Doulos, this one just seemed to not pack the same kind of punch that the others did.
Again, this may be the fault on the viewer for seeing this last among his mostly thriller-oriented oeuvre, but perhaps it's also some of Melville's fault too; again and again, as the dedicated and ruthless auteur that he was (one of the great French directors I would argue), he kept coming back to men in trench-coats with grim expressions figuring out on both sides- criminal and detective- of how to plot the next move or, for the former, how to keep from the fatalism of the plot.Which, for Melville, is something that comes second nature.
The difference, perhaps, in this case is that the length (a whopping two and a half hours, longer than both The Red Circle and Army of Shadows) and the amount of details in the structure of the story (i.e. what happened on such and such a day made this happened could've been snipped, albeit I can't pinpoint to which) bog down some of the more successful aspects to the picture.
Which is also to say that for all of its minor misgivings, Le Deuxieme soufflé (or, simply, The Second Breath) is near-classic Melville, with nail-bitingly tense suspense scenes like the opening escape from the prison and the latter heist sequence- somewhat more obvious and less coolly ambitious as Red Circle.There's the amazing cinematography as well, a trademark of Melville and his crew to make things gritty but smooth in precision and style, and the performances from Paul Meurisse as the Detective (maybe my favorite performance of the picture just for the intelligence he imbues in the character), and Lino Ventura as one of the quintessential Melville anti-heroes, Gu, the convict who wants in on the big 200 million heist.
And even as it could be Melville's most "talky" picture after Bob le flambeur (which is relative to how pleasantly light, or how seemingly sparse, his films are with dialog), when the characters speak it's to the point of with some quotable spunk to them.There's an icy, unspoken angst in Melville's world of criminals, almost questioning but still true to the notion of the 'policier', where you'd want the criminals to get away with it if the detective wasn't so doggone determined all the time.
It's another fine piece of film-making from the director, just not an all-time-top flick - more along the lines of Un flic.
However intimidating a run time may look, the greats go by quicker than many 90 minute efforts.
While many have commented on "Second Wind" (using the English title for simplicity's sake) running time, rest assured, it too is deceptive.The film opens abruptly into the finale of an escape sequence from prison, giving no breathing room as you are thrown into the action.
Many plot points are running intersect, including a battle over the cigarette business and the forming of a heist, the latter of which Gu is drawn into in order to have some money when he leaves the country.
While there are a lot of characters and going ons to keep track of, as long as one is paying attention, following along is simple, as Melville masterfully brings these plot points together.This is a dialogue and character heavy movie, making it more similar to "Bob the Gambler" (1955) than "Le Samurai(1967).
While maybe not as snappy as Godard, or Tarantino for a more modern example, Melville's films were always strong in dialogue, and this is no exception.
Whether it's humorous, like inspector Blot's sarcastic rant on the unwillingness of a restaurant's employees and customers to comment on the shooting that had occurred, or serious, such as a trio of gangsters confronting a man they believe set them up, there are no wasted scenes or dull moments, whether five minutes or twenty.
There's nothing here story wise that is of particularly new ground: a noir style fatalism, a police force as corrupt as the criminals they pursue, political intrigue and betrayals, however it doesn't matter.
This is actually a much more subdued effort for Melville in that regard, but it works here as the focus is much more on story and characters.Not to be missed for fans of crime films..
As is common in Jean-Pierre Melville's later films, this meticulously crafted crime film opens with a title card that epigrammatically sets out a foreboding epigram that molds ostensible meaning into the action: "A man is given but one right at birth: to choose his own death.
I'm not so sure that this slow, deliberate caper, or any of Melville's others for that matter, seeks all of the indications of this quote, but its pretext of fate, mortality and grim, solipsistic judgment corresponds with the essential themes of the film.Like Le Cercle Rouge, Le Deuxième Soufflé is a nominal saga, an antithetical and composite film in which the life seems as if to impose and simultaneously exhale.
There are several instances set within moving cars, less to expand the atmosphere than to show the inhibition of the space they employ.What frustrates and somewhat detaches me however is that Melville never seems to give his characters any involved cognitive measure.
Gu is a ruthless, intractable and curtailed presence who gains recognition, even from Inspector Blot, another wonderfully named character, played by Paul Meurisse, who respects his deadly actions because he eventually complies with and doesn't veer from his dang "code."Much of this 1966 cops-and-robbers film can be explained just in terms of its distilled preoccupation with the reference to the conventions regarding the treatment of Chandler, McBain, W.R. Burnett, Jim Thompson, stylish Hollywood crime dramas, and classic American gangster pictures.
Melville's films in this mode have the element of photogenics, conformity to modern ideas and models nourished by a shadowy nonchalance and the characters' affectedly memorialized mannerisms.
Also, it's not until Gu changes into clothing more mindfully echoing that of a gangster that he is allowed to free himself from being so secretive and concealed.The sullen, inflamed and exceedingly conventionalized quality of this typified film conveys Melville's immersion in the downbeat deliberation of the play of loyalty and destined disloyalty.
With this transcendent crime film, as per Melville's usual, complete with another great title, Second Wind, Melville pushes the tonal qualities and gray scale of the image to new levels.
The movie's preoccupation with issues of fellowship, abnormally all-consuming professionalism, silence, and duplicity reverberates with Melville's own distinction as an egocentric, tight-lipped, fringe-dwelling figure in French cinema, who despite his success never truly declared participation or involvement in any founded generation or evolution of filmmakers..
I'll start with a quote from Alphonse Boudard, regarding the tendency to make crime films like Greek tragedy: Melville wants to remake the Atreidae among criminals.
The excessive length of the film (Le Samourai clocks in at 100 minutes, Un flic at 94--these stories are not much less complicated than Deuxieme souffle), means there must be scenes that drag on, until the dramatic effect is totally lost.
Pierre Zimmer, playing Orloff, is given silly lines about what he has to do with Gu, if there's betrayal, but he comes off so stiff you want to fast-forward through his scenes.
Lino Ventura acts well, has lots of charisma, but looks old--and his age is commented on by the younger thugs.
There's only one stand-out performance: Paul Meurisse is so elegant and smart as Blot that the story takes off every time he comes into the frame.
If you have seen Les Diaboliques, you'll know how good he is.The camera work is mediocre; a washed-out b/w that looks more like television than Melville's great pictures of the 50's.
Slow Going But Rewarding Heist Film Needs Another Look.
While in many ways a quintessential heist film, and in other ways a gangster film, this brooding black and white masterpiece also deals with certain codes of honor, and much that is important in the film is left unsaid; the viewer may expect reactions that don't occur, may often question the motives of characters that don't speak, and it is only to viewing the film a second time that much of it comes clear; with the excellent Criterion transfers, it's fascinating to follow the second time with the included commentary; this is not an action-packed film at 2 1/2 hours, but a good deal does happen: lives are lost, a massive robbery takes place, and one is never too sure where the lines between law and disorder cross.
I don't speak French, but the acting and the subtitled dialog are outstanding throughout.The plot and each situation, each conversation, is completely credible, and follows naturally, yet not predictably, from what came before.A note to younger audiences: there are no highly choreographed fight scenes or stylized gun battles (though there are fights and shooting).
This appears to mark the turning point where Melville lost all real interest in character (after the wonderful Le Doulos and the underrated L'Aine Des Ferchaux) and turned his attention to set piece robberies and shoot outs.
Performance wise two people stand out - Paul Meurisse as the compassionate, intelligent and very, very funny Inspector Blot, and Pierre Zimmer as Orloff, the gangster who serves as the moral touchstone for his peers.About three quarters of the way through the film turns from an escaped convict and heist movie into the story of a man trying to prove that he hasn't been a police informer/collaborator.
As with a lot of Melville's gangster vs police movies (a big favourite with the French) you can't help feeling that he's really dealing with the issue of wartime resistance to the German occupation.
To my mind, though, Melville seems more interested in shoring up the myth of resistance rather than dealing with the truth (as Louis Malle tried to in Lacombe, Lucien, resulting in his effective exile from France for the rest of his life).The scene where Paul is interrogated by the police was apparently edited at the insistence of France's censors to remove the scenes of water being poured down his throat.
The Second Chance of a Desperate Man. Painstaking detail and near-real-time narrative pace characterize THE SECOND BREATH (WIND).
This is another in Melville's series of caper films in which the viewer is shown the entire process of planning and executing the crime.
But, like the director's other fine films, this one is also about the characters.
On several occasions, Melville has given us a nearly washed-up criminal as a main character and here we are given one of the hardest-boiled examples: Gustave "Gu" Minda (Lino Ventura).
The film alternates between Gu and Commissaire Blot (Paul Meurisse) the police chief who is as committed to capturing Gu as Gu is to escaping.
A latter-day Film Noir in which fate plays a major role, it's not Melville's best film, but it deserves to be seen by anyone interested in this director..
Another of Melville's existential thugs struggling with the Code, and with 144 minutes to do it in.
Nearly two-and-a-half hours is a long, long time in the movies, especially so when Jean- Pierre Melville is once more demonstrating his passion for hard boiled gangsters.
With Le Deuxieme Soufflé (Second Breath), it seems to me that Melville has given us some extraordinary set pieces of heists, shoot-outs and chases...including one roll-along-the-floor while-shooting-a-gun-in-each-hand and-plugging-all-the-guys-who were-going-to-plug-you that now has become a pretty-boy-actor-as-tough-guy cliché.
Melville underlines it all with his stoic gangster code of conduct, illustrated by the pretentious words that start this movie: "A man is given but one right at birth: To choose his own death.
But if he chooses because he's weary of life, then his entire existence has been without meaning." Let me tell you something...nothing, nothing will go right as long as Gu Minda, cold-blooded murderer with a soft spot for Manouche, believes his buddies think he ratted them out.
Is this to deny that Melville was a great director?
Hardly, but it is to recognize that Melville was human: He didn't always make great movies; his preoccupation with gangsters and their fictitious code of conduct was limiting; his indulgence in what passes as "style" in the gangster milieu could appear, in my opinion, downright silly; and as a screenwriter he was capable of some corny gangster dialogue (or at least he was ill-served at times by the subtitle writers).
The director who could give us Bob le Flambeur, with its irony, its humanity and its tight, story-telling prowess, is a great director with a sense of humor.
Watch Army of Shadows and Bob le Flambeur (and Le Cercle Rouge) first, then Le Deuxieme Soufflé and Le Samourai...and come to your own conclusions.
The devil of it with Le Deuxieme Soufflé is that great stretches of the movie are gripping, Lino Ventura (with that hard, tired face) and Paul Meurisse are first- rate and Melville never lets us have less than a superbly presented series of scenes.
But, in my opinion, his series of scenes, some lengthy, don't add up to a tightly realized movie, especially at over two-and-a-half hours.
Gu Minda (Lino Ventura) is a cop-killing gangster who has just broken out of prison.
Two hoods threaten Manouche, his long-time girl friend (Christine Fabrega), in her apartment.
With Melville's code of the existential gangster, there never is.
While the plot is simple, Melville embellishes it with any number of twists and turns, sneaky actions, a coincidence or two and some satisfying betrayals, plus a long, extremely well-done set piece on how to hi-jack a van full of platinum.
It would be difficult to say -- between Ventura with Gu's grim, murderous honor and Meurisse with Blot's sardonic realism and intelligence -- who gives the film more interest.
Very well written and played--this one is a thinking person's crime film.
"Le Deuxième Soufflé" is an excellent crime film--mostly because it emphasizes realism as opposed to sensationalism.
The first half of the movie have a lot to do with his escape and his life in hiding.
However, once again, there is much more to this 150 minute film--a lot of twists and turns that occur because Gu, though generally amoral, will do anything to convince his fellow criminals that he has a strong sense of honor and integrity.
Making this film in black and white was a great choice, as it heightened the Noir look and it as well as "Bob le Flambeur" and "Le Samourai" are among the best in this French genre.
One of the greatest french crime movies of all times.
A director who was very influenced by the US crime films world.
And the sequence - in LE DEUXIEME Soufflé - where the four gangsters wait for the armored truck robbery, on the desert road, this very sequence is directly a homage to the nearly same scene, in the Robert Wises' film, where the three robbers - Ryan, Belafonte and Begley - wait before the heist.Some scenes here are also some repetitions for further Melville's films.
You'll have the very same scene, later in LE CERCLE ROUGE, when Yves Montand makes the same thing during the jewelry store heist.Or the other sequence, where Denis Manuel - Antoine's character - walks into the room where he knows he will probably have to fight against his enemy; Manuel hides a gun somewhere; and a couple of minutes later another character comes into the room, after Manuel's departure, searches and finds the famous gun, hidden just before.
Cops enter Alain Delon's flat, hide some bugs in order to spy him...And also a couple of minutes later, when Delon comes back to his room...Know what I am driving at?That the Melville's touch.
Shooting in black and white was essential to focus viewers on the story, the characters and the script.
A middle-aged gangster with the deceptively nice and normal name of Gustave (or "Gu") escapes from prison and returns to his habitual environment, to wit the environment of heavy-duty professional crime.