Criterion Collection: Le Deuxieme Souffle [1966] [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Jean-Pierre Melville's adaptation of José Giovanni's Deuxieme Souffle is a classic example of a good story badly told. Running two-and-a-half hours and feeling even longer at times, this story of Lino Ventura's escaped convict getting disastrously mixed up in the proverbial one last job to set him up with enough money to escape to Sicily is not exactly a model of narrative economy as the exposition heavy first two hours are filled with characters speculating at length on scenes we've just seen without ever shining any new light on them. Initially this works surprisingly well as Paul Meurisse's casually brilliant been-there, done-that cop, the real star of the show, explains exactly the story various witnesses will tell at a crime scene for them to save the trouble of interrogating them, but increasingly it just becomes repetitive and slows the picture down to a surprisingly dull crawl. It's not until the last quarter that the film finally threatens to kick start into life as Ventura is tricked into revealing the identity of one of his cohorts and tries desperately to prove that he's no stoolpigeon with both the cops and the gang after his blood. His obsession proving that he's not a collaborator certainly may have had some wartime resonance for a French audience, but more up to date references were left on the cutting from floor thanks to the notorious French censor cuts that saw a police torture scene cut to almost incomprehensibility to remove shots of a suspect being force fed water, a favorite torture technique of the French paratroops and police in Algeria.

That the film's most notorious scene isn't actually in the picture any more is telling for a film that plays better in the memory than while you're actually watching it. While there are occasional hints of Melville's better pictures - those omnipresent trenchcoats and hats, the opening prison break played out in silence, a railway station shot anticipating one in L'Armee des Ombres - it's a distinctly minor film padded out to an epic length it never justifies. There are the odd moments that intrigue, such as one character rehearsing the ways a meeting can go wrong to know where to stash hidden weapons only for one of the hoods he's meeting to do exactly the same thing, but they rarely pay off, while the characters on the wrong side of the law are never quite iconic enough to carry the film over the rough patches. Only Pierre Zimmer's Orloff is particularly admirable, but he's more a facilitator than a protagonist, accurately described by one character, as "all style, no action." While the line might seem a suitable description for Melville, the film isn't that stylish either: with no Henri Decae or Nicholas Hayer behind the lens this time (Marcel Combes was the cinematographer) it often looks no better than the average French polar of the era. It's the kind of film that could certainly benefit from a good remake with a tighter script, though whether the recent Daniel Auteuil version is an improvement remains to be seen.

Criterion's Region 1 NTSC DVD offers a fine transfer with a good selection of extras.

One of the chief merits of this film is having Lino Ventura as star instead of the more glamorous Belmondo or Delon (Melville's typical choices). Ventura has no veneer. His hangdog face and stocky body give an authenticity and grittiness to it -- even in the midst of the usual Melville iconography of trenchcoats, American cars, and jazz. And, unlike the other two actors, he naturally embodies the fatalism that's a vital part of this story.

This is probably my favorite of Melville's gangster films. It's a study of loyalties (based on a novel by José Giovanni) and it has more depth than his other gangster films. Best of all, it has characters that are intelligent and capable -- forcing them to engage in battles of wits before they can engage in gunplay.

There's Blot, the Police Inspector (personified by Paul Meurisse), who possesses a Sherlock Holmesian cleverness. There's the mysterious Orloff (Pierre Zimmer) whose quiet skill seems to be a precursor to Alain Delon's role in Melville's next movie, LE SAMOURAÏ. And even Manouche (Christine Fabrega) is proactive altho her primary purpose is to provide an emotional center for the film.

(BTW, I don't think Mel Ferrer's name should appear as a cast member. I don't think he made an appearance in the finished product.)

There are many tense, engrossing episodes in this 2 hr 10 min film which make the slow spots that bridge them seem less like slow spots.

My thanks to Criterion for making this fine film available. That makes 11 Jean-Pierre Melville films that I've seen. 3 to go.

The Criterion DVD has a detailed film commentary by Melville expert Ginette Vincendeau and British film critic Geoff Andrew. Bertrand Tavernier speaks in English of his experiences with Melville. And there's a short piece made on Melville at the time of this film's production.

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 Souffle (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. They are embedded, however, in an over-long story featuring yet one more of Melville's existential heroes that he came to obsess about. 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. The Code won't permit it.

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). With all this, the director who could give us Army of Shadows, with its terrible themes, its remorselessness and its humanity, is a great director. 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 Souffle and Le Samourai...and come to your own conclusions. The devil of it with Le Deuxieme Souffle 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 nearly two-and-a-half hours.

Gu Minda (Lino Ventura) is a cop-killing gangster who has just broken out of prison. Gangsters he knows have been moving in on his turf. Two hoods threaten Manouche, his long-time girl friend (Christine Fabrega), in her apartment. Gu intervenes, and with a friend drives the hoods to the country. Gu guns them down in the car. Inspector Blot is after Gu. Blot is resourceful and relentless. Gu has no money. He's determined on one last heist with a big payday before he and Manouche flee France. Inspector Blot will not make things easy, When Gu realizes his honor has been compromised, he won`t leave France until he sets things straight. Don't expect a happy ending. 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. In this gangster movie there is no gangster arm candy, only Manouche. Fabrega was 35 when the movie was released. Lino Ventura was 47. Through the alchemy of genes and make-up, they make their characters about same age. Fabrega looks her years and is all the more believable because of this desirable maturity. She gives to Gu what little sympathy we have for him. 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. It might depend on your tolerance for thug killers who agonize about their reputations.

At any rate, Le Deuxieme Souffle is worth seeing. Judge it for yourself. The Criterion release looks very good.