Le Deuxième Souffle · reception & legacy

1966 · Jean-Pierre Melville

How Le Deuxième Souffle has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A hit in France in 1966 on the strength of Lino Ventura's star power, it then spent decades in the shadow of Le Samouraï — made just a year later — and was hard to see in the US until Criterion rescued it in 2008; now it's routinely called Melville's most underrated film.

What's debated

The perennial fight: is the 150-minute runtime hypnotic, methodical Melville at his purest, or does it prove Le Samouraï's leanness was the upgrade?

Its footprint

The mountain-road armored-car heist — played out in near silence — is a set piece crime directors have been chasing ever since, part of the Melville DNA that runs through Heat and beyond; Alain Corneau remade the film in 2007 with Daniel Auteuil.

Where it stands

The deep-cut Melville — the one cinephiles reach for after Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge to prove they've gone past the greatest hits.

★ Did you know? Melville and Lino Ventura fell out so badly during the shoot that they never reconciled — when they reunited for Army of Shadows three years later, they largely communicated through intermediaries. Bonus: the source novelist, José Giovanni, was a former convict who had himself been sentenced to death.