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Second Breath

1966 2h 24m Drama List
100% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 93% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
An escaped con becomes involved with a double-crossing gang planning to steal two tons of gold from an armored truck.
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Second Breath

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
Richard Brody New Yorker Melville distills emotions to rarefied minimalist gestures ... and offers a stringent morality of self-discipline, both his heroes' and his own. Jul 25, 2016 Full Review Nick Schager Slant Magazine Characteristic of Melville's crime canon, the film's rigorously mannered aesthetic creates a decidedly artificial environment, and yet that environment is so meticulously, thoroughly realized that it's breathtakingly immersive. Rated: 3/4 Oct 6, 2008 Full Review Time Out A labyrinthine exploration of loyalties and betrayals in the French underworld. Feb 9, 2006 Full Review Fernando F. Croce CinePassion Second breath, inexorable suffocation Apr 27, 2015 Full Review Chris Cabin Filmcritic.com superbly restrained Rated: 4.5/5 Nov 18, 2008 Full Review Jeremy Heilman MovieMartyr.com The product of a director in complete control of his talents, Second Breath musters enough depth that by its conclusion it feels only nominally like a heist film. Rated: 82/100 Jan 9, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (72) audience reviews
Audience Member I'm glad there's a heist movie with a character that just goes by Gu, who as it happens is an all-time badass. That's all you need to know. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member best noir film I've ever seen - RBS Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member I thoroughly enjoyed this film from Jean-Pierre Melville, master of the crime film. Melville has done several of my favourite films including: "Le Samourai", "Le Cercle Rouge and "Bob Le Flambeur". I enjoyed the story and all the characters. The film is long and at times a slow burn, but I got so invested in the story and the fates of the characters that it worked perfectly for me. I wasn't familiar with any of the actors but liked them all. Highly recommended! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Another great robbery-thievery thriller from Melville. This might be called his "real" breakthrough, naturally in pure Melville style, precision, action, cop, villain. Whats not to like about Lino Ventura, great actor and cast. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member <i>Le Deuxième Souffle</i> is one hell of an interesting transition in style and execution considering Melville's trajectory. On one hand, there's the film-noir influences on his career which resulted in a few of the most important neo-noir contributions in cinema history, directed by Melville himself. <i>Bob le Flambeur</i> (1956) carried this. Then there's the complex web of character interrelations and double-crossings reunited by a primary plot and reacting in secondary subplots, the latter hiding the characters' motivations, interests and intentions. Melville achieves this with true brilliance. Each character is an evil entity of unpredictable moral. An unusual group of characters with various shadowy (and disturbing) backgrounds interacting with a common criminal purpose would reach its height in <i>Le Cercle Rouge</i> (1970), but this web of interrelationships would find its pinnacle in a WWII setting, which everybody recalls as <i>Army of Shadows</i> (1969), a horror testament of despair, conspiracies and deceit. Then there's the violence which plays an important role in Melville's films, which would allow him to close the decade with style and contribute to the ferocity of the neo-noir environment while influencing tons of future different filmmakers in the process. This technical stunt is one I mirror too often with the decisions of some modern directors to invade the "silent" (more subtle) tone of the story with sudden outbursts of hard-hitting violence, like a statement spoken out loud and directly. Belmondo's interrogation scene with a woman in <i>Le Doulos</i> (1962) had censors reacting everywhere. Second to last, we have the slow-pacing and high attention to detail that Melville made in the screenplays and in the execution of the scenes, which would then iconically materialize into fully elaborated heist sequences which realism and overtly prolonged dedications are born straightly from Dassin's masterpiece <i>Rififi</i> (1955), a film that I will never cease to give credit to. This feature would then be reflected in <i>Le Cercle Rouge</i> (1970) and in the director's farewell, <i>Un Flic</i> (1972). Finally, there's the shadowy, existentialist tone of it all, and this is where the transition aspect comes in. The film still feels like a noir heir from certain themes to the visual composition and a handful of characters, but is also a subliminal introduction to the loneliness of Jef Costello in <i>Le Samouraï</i> (1969), also noticeable in the protagonists of the world turned upside down in <i>Army of Shadows</i> (1969). In this sense, <i>Le Deuxième Souffle</i> is the Melville film that not only helped him to make a step forward towards his evolved style that assaulted the senses with tremendous power, but also is the only film of his that has all of his famous elements put together, which is maybe why it is his longest film, as far as I'm concerned. It's his most methodical facet. That is quite an epic homework to balance, but after a noticeable effort, everything paid off, including one of the best endings of the decade in European cinema. 91/100 Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Elegant but brutal, evocative but restrained, cold but human. Melville shows respect to both bleak sides of every coin. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Second Breath

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis An escaped con becomes involved with a double-crossing gang planning to steal two tons of gold from an armored truck.
Director
Jean-Pierre Melville
Production Co
Les Productions Montaigne
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 14, 2015
Runtime
2h 24m
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