Sightlines · reception
How Le Deuxième Souffle was received
1966 · Jean-Pierre Melville · Le Deuxième Souffle on Sightlines
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.