☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Le
Deuxieme Souffle (1966) – J.-P. Melville
Melville’s
last black and white picture sees him refining his French updating of film noir
traditions with his special focus on the honor among thieves (a.k.a. the
criminal code). Leon Ventura plays
Gustave “Gu” Minda, who escapes from prison after 10 years (in a very
Bressonian opening sequence) but needs to do one last job to have enough money
to live comfortably when he flees the country.
The first 75 minutes is all set up for an amazing outdoor armored car
heist sequence, one of Melville’s best (with his usual focus on the meticulous
planned and interdependent actions involved in completing a crime). After that,
a long denouement as Minda gets entrapped by knowing police Inspector Blot
(played charismatically by Paul Meurisse from Les Diaboliques). That’s not a
spoiler, because even from the opening titles, Melville cues viewers into the
fatalistic doom-laden story about to unfold. You can’t go wrong with Melville.
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