With his customary restraint and ruthless attention to detail, director Jean-Pierre Melville follows the parallel tracks of French underworld criminal Gu (the inimitable Lino Ventura), escaped from prison and roped into one last robbery, and the suave inspector, Blot (Paul Meurisse), relentlessly seeking him. The implosive Le deuxième souffle captures the pathos, loneliness, and excitement of a life in the shadows with methodical suspense and harrowing authenticity, and contains one of the most thrilling heist sequences Melville ever shot.
| Gustave 'Gu' Minda | Lino Ventura |
| Commissaire Blot | Paul Meurisse |
| Paul Ricci | Raymond Pellegrin |
| Manouche | Christine Fabréga |
| Marcel Bozzuffi | Jo Ricci |
| Antoine | Denis Manuel |
| Alban | Michel Constantin |
| Orloff | Pierre Zimmer |
| Pascal | Pierre Grasset |
| Director | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| Screenplay | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| From a novel by | José Giovanni |
| Cinematography | Marcel Combes |
| Music | Bernard Gérard |
| Editing | Michel Boëhm and Monique Bonnot |
| Production design | Jean-Jacques Fabre |
By January 16, 2017
The Asphalt Jungle To make the performance of a tedious, exacting, time-consuming task riveting to watch, it is only necessary for the activity to be illegal. This is the lesson of heist movies, . . . Read more »
October 20, 2016
Today, we’re celebrating what would have been Jean-Pierre Melville’s ninety-ninth birthday. In a filmography that ranges from psychosexual dramas and bracing chronicles of the French Resistance . . . Read more »
By October 06, 2008
Le deuxième souffle, Jean-Pierre Melville’s ninth and to that point most commercially successful feature in France, was an important watershed in the director’s career. It points back to the . . . Read more »
By October 06, 2008
Le deuxième souffle, Jean-Pierre Melville’s ninth and to that point most commercially successful feature in France, was an important watershed in the director’s career. It points back to the . . . Read more »
By January 16, 2017
The Asphalt Jungle To make the performance of a tedious, exacting, time-consuming task riveting to watch, it is only necessary for the activity to be illegal. This is the lesson of heist movies, . . . Read more »
October 20, 2016
Today, we’re celebrating what would have been Jean-Pierre Melville’s ninety-ninth birthday. In a filmography that ranges from psychosexual dramas and bracing chronicles of the French Resistance . . . Read more »
January 26, 2011
In a new article for Moving Image Source, critic and Cineaste editor Richard Porton peeks behind the stony facade of the most unlikely of French movie stars, Lino Ventura. Before he came to . . . Read more »
By October 06, 2008
Le deuxième souffle, Jean-Pierre Melville’s ninth and to that point most commercially successful feature in France, was an important watershed in the director’s career. It points back to the . . . Read more »
