With his customary restraint and ruthless attention to detail, Melville follows the parallel tracks of French underworld criminal Gu (the inimitable Lino Ventura, Army of Shadows ), who has escaped from prison and finds himself roped into one last robbery, and the suave inspector Blot (Paul Meurisse, Les Diaboliques), who is relentlessly chasing him down. The implosive Le Deuxième Souffle captures the pathos, loneliness, and excitement of a life in the shadows with methodical suspense and harrowing authenticity, and contains one of the most thrilling heist sequences Melville ever shot.

Presented on 35mm courtesy of Institut Français.