|
Jean-Pierre Melville completed a mere thirteen features
between 1947 (when he started shooting his first feature,
Le Silence de la Mer) and his death in 1973. He
began outside the industry and remained there throughout
his career while making a nearly unbroken series of
box-office hits through the sixties. He was a hero and a
mentor to the New Wave directors (Godard even cast Melville
in a memorable cameo in his debut feature,
Breathless) and, decades later, an inspiration to
such directors as John Woo (The Killer is a
feature-length homage to Le Samourai), Michael Mann
and Quentin Tarantino. Today, he's known for his gangster
films and crime dramas, a genre he all but redefined with a
distinctive run that began in 1956 with his deft and
playfully ironic heist drama Bob le Flambeur.
Le Deuxième Souffle is less well known than such
celebrated films as Le Doulos, Le Samourai
and Le Cercle Rouge, and has been regrettably
neglected due to its long unavailability. The long overdue
home video release reveals a transitional film between the
romantic genre play of Bob le Flambeur and Le
Doulos and the austere and existential Le
Samourai. The moments of light humor and romantic
diversions from his earlier films have been banished from
this portrait of the criminal underworld and the romantic
code of underworld honor comes at a steep cost. Melville's
direction is more stripped down and austere, his camera
more sensitive to the minutiae of detail and his exacting
pace and meticulous editing attuned to the weight of time.
The careful casing of a room and the tense wait for the
arrival of a target are as meticulously measured as the
exacting details of a robbery or a shoot-out. It's all
there from the brilliant opening scene, a prison break
where we never actually see the prison, only the abstract
pieces of walls and doors and guard towers that the three
convicts must navigate to reach their freedom. In the gray
light of early dawn, they wordlessly make their leap, the
oldest of the three straining to keep up with the youngest,
huffing as he tramps through the forest and races to catch
an open boxcar on a passing train.
That criminal elder is Gustave 'Gu' Minda, played by
stocky, broad-shouldered Lino Ventura, an icon of French
crime cinema (including such classics as Touchez pas au
grisbi and Classe tous risques) and the very
model of stoic professionalism. Our first glimpse reveals a
vulnerable man, perhaps past his prime, out of his element
and persevering by sheer determination. But once he's back
in his own environment – Paris, Marseilles, the brotherhood
of a gang on a meticulously-planned heist – he's not just
the consummate professional, he's the unflappable anchor
who personally takes care of every potential problem,
whether it's a pair of two-bit thugs who try to rob
Manouche (Christine Fabrega), Gu's former lover and trusted
friend (she's referred to as his "sister," which is slang
for mistress), or a motorcycle cop guarding an armored car
with a shipment of platinum. But he's also resigned to his
fate: "I gambled and I lost," he shrugs when Manouche tries
to cheer him up.
The film is based on a novel by José Giovanni, the pen name
of Joseph Damiani, a real-life petty thief who started
putting his experiences and stories to paper while serving
eight years of a life sentence. Melville, In his interviews
with Rui Nogueria (published in the book Melville on
Melville), proclaimed that "I retained everything that
was Melvillian from the book and threw everything else
out." Melville scholar Ginette Vincendeau, in her book
Jean- Pierre Melville: An American in Paris,
observes that his adaptation is in fact largely faithful to
the original novel, but that the minor changes are also
defining. Melville cuts minor characters, removes private
lives from his professional characters and makes Gu an
isolated loner too proud to accept the charity of his
friends. He also restructures the story, providing a
strong, clear narrative line through the complex web of
relationships and betrayals and the multiple story strands
that he slowly winds together: Gu's life in hiding and his
scheme to from France, the platinum heist masterminded by
his old friend Paul (Raymond Pellegrin), the bad blood with
Paul's unprincipled brother (Marcel Bozzuffi) and the
dogged investigation by maverick Commissaire Blot (Paul
Meurisse), a cagey Paris cop with a savvy understanding of
the politics of the underworld. "He isn't your usual
killer," he warns his men as they close in on Gu. "He's
doomed and he knows it." But Gu does have something to
lose. When a less disciplined cop leaks to the papers that
Gu snitched on his fellow gang members, Gu becomes almost
feral as he risks his own life to restore his honor and
redeem his reputation.
Melville began pre-production on Le Deuxième Souffle
in 1963, but a long legal battle with another production
company (who had also purchased the rights from Giovanni,
who apparently thought Melville's option had lapsed)
delayed the start until 1966. Ventura has originally been
set to play Commisaire Blot opposite Serge Reggiani (from
Le Doulos) as Gu. By 1966, Reggiani was out (over a
contract dispute, according to the actor), Ventura took
over the lead and Melville reworked the role of Gu from an
exhausted and fragile older man to an aging but still
robust veteran. According to Melville, Simone Signoret was
originally signed to play Manouche and the rest of the film
was almost entirely recast. The film was rushed into
production in February under "extremely difficult
conditions" and shut down in mid-March for three months,
according to Melville. "When we started again on 7 June, it
seemed like a miracle." Even after it was finished,
Melville ran into problems with censors over a scene where
the police, during their interrogation of Paul, put a
funnel in his mouth and pour water down his throat. The
Censorship Commission demanded the scene be cut because:
"This is not normal practice in the French Police." It was,
however, an echo of recently revealed Army interrogation
practices in Algeria, which may have made the scene even
more troubling to the censors.
Le Deuxième Souffle is at heart a romantic fantasy of
underworld loyalty and lives of calculated risk and
violence anchored by brilliantly staged and shot set
pieces, from the opening prison break to the precision
execution of the armored car a heist. But there is a harder
edge to the moral compromises made in the name of
professionalism (notably the cold-blooded killing of two
motorcycle cops played out with the cold dispassion of a
military attack, an act Melville doesn't shy away from but
neither condemns). For all that thematic darkness, the film
became his biggest hit to date and firmly established the
maverick auteur as a major mainstream director.
Criterion's disc shows minor signs of age and wear and some
chemical degradation across some reels (noticeable mostly
in darker scenes), but it's eminently watchable and a
welcome release for the rarely screened Melville film. The
DVD features commentary by Melville scholar Ginette
Vincendeau and critic Geoff Andrew, who intersperse their
reading of the film and observations of style with
production details, and a new video interview with
filmmaker and critic Bertrand Tavernier, who worked as an
assistant and publicist for Melville in the sixties and
shares stories about the director. Also features a pair of
archival interviews with Melville and Ventura: a short
four-minute newsreel piece (which includes a brief clip of
actor Jose Ferrer, who is not in the finished film but was
apparently cast in the film at one time) and a more formal
26-minute interview from the French TV series
Cinema. An accompanying booklet features an essay by
film professor Adrian Dirks.
For more information about Le Deuxième Souffle,
visit The Criterion
Collection.To order Le Deuxième Souffle, go to
TCM Shopping.
by Sean Axmaker
|
TCM UK
| 
TCM Spain
| 
TCM France
| TCM Latin America
| TCM Asia
| TCM Germany
TCM.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network.
