Movies in 2026 200

 

Le Deuxieme Souffle (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966)

I'm a late discoverer of the film of Jean-Pierre Melville (to my shame, and, again, I blame growing up in the cultural wasteland of Indiana), but I hope to make up for the delay. Last night I watched his 1966 film Le Deuxieme Souffle. I'd always thought of his film Le Samurai as a film noir, which it is, of a fashion, but it's also more than a bit of a procedural - and I'd make the same argument Le Deuxieme Souffle. If you think of a film noir as the regular joe who is drawn into a moral quagmire through one bad decision, hoping to escape poverty or a humdrum life, which leads to a string of bad decisions, then these films really aren't a film noir. However, if you think of a film noir as the study of a conflicted, morally ambivalent character - even if they're already a criminal - then they would fall into the film noir category (and this is why some film critics have argued that film noir isn't even a true genre, or at least one that is easy to define). They're both procedurals in that they give equal weight to the policeman's efforts to capture the crook, even when the police themselves often break the law. Lino Ventura plays Gustave "Gu" Minda, an older gangster who has tried for the big score but failed, but also can't accept that failure. This leads him to one last long-shot chance, even though he has the option to go away with his girlfriend Manouche (Christine Fabrega). He can't simply disappear with her because of his own code, stupid, on one front, because he can't accept living off a woman, but oddly noble on the other because he needs to go out on a high note (and also because he needs money, especially since he can't accept Manouche's). His code is also shown by the fact that when the heist blows up it appears that he had named names, and he goes to extraordinary efforts to prove that he didn't, even though the effort to do so insures that he's killed. Paul Meurisse is very good as Inspector Blot of Paris, who also has his own code of conduct, and a grudging respect for Gu's. Definitely recommended.