Le Deuxième souffle
Jean-Pierre Melville
Gustave Minda, aka "Gu" escapes from prison in Castres and goes to Paris. Meanwhile in Marseille, Paul Ricci is preparing a hold-up. Gu decides to take part in the raid so that he can have a hideout abroad. But Commissaire Blot is hot on his heels...
With : Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Raymond Pellegrin, Christine Fabrega, Pierre Zimmer
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Melville (d'après le roman du même titre de José Giovanni)
Image : Marcel Combes
Sound : Jacques Gallois
Editing : Michel Bohème
Decors : Jean-Jacques Fabre
Music : Bernard Gérard
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Melville (d'après le roman du même titre de José Giovanni)
Image : Marcel Combes
Sound : Jacques Gallois
Editing : Michel Bohème
Decors : Jean-Jacques Fabre
Music : Bernard Gérard
Production : Les Productions Montaigne
Distribution: René Château distribution
Distribution: René Château distribution
After Jean Becker's Le Trou (The Night Watch) (1960) and Claude Sautet's Classe tous risqué (The Big Risk) (1960), two films he admired, Jean-Pierre Melville also adapted a novel by José Giovanni. Le Deuxième soufflé (Second Breath) is the accomplishment of its style: "With this chef d'oeuvre which is as sharp as a razor and as hard as a diamond, the most French of American directors and the most American of French directors is not happy with just totally overhauling the film noir, but he also gives us the bonus of the intense lyricism of contained emotion, a feeling of total fullness, the perfection of a meditated and pre-meditated construction which transcends and dominates the art of editing, the skill of camerawork, the choice of sets, the directing of actors that we thrill in recognising in him, without forgetting the excellence of the dialogues" (Gilles Jacob).