Le Deuxième souffle (2007)
Directed by Alain Corneau

Film Review

Alain Corneau's blockbuster remake of the 1966 gangster thriller Le Deuxième souffle makes a courageous stab at an alternative visualisation of the film noir aesthetic but is so torn between bold experimentation and bald cliché that it ends up looking more like a hideous parody of the Jean-Pierre Melville classic instead of the intended homage.   The film may have a stellar cast and a budget that most French filmmakers can only dream of, but, drunk on its own soulless artiness and with a runtime of two and half hours, this second adaptation of José Giovanni's novel is the mother of all ordeals to sit through.

Corneau's reputation rests largely on the noir-style thrillers that he made early on in his career - stylish classics such as Police Python 357 (1976) and Le Choix des armes (1981).  These films were noted for their gritty realism, taut screenplays and intense performances.  If Corneau had made his Le Deuxième souffle in a similar style it would have been a far more attractive prospect.  Instead, presumably influenced by the latest trends in Asian cinema, he uses an extreme form of stylisation, based on excessive colour saturation, which not only diminishes the realism but also makes the film extremely uncomfortable to watch.  Had this been a ninety minute movie this arty gimmickry may not have mattered so much, but for a 150 minute long epic Corneau is probably expecting far too much from his audience.

The film's needlessly heavy stylisation is at least partly redeemed by some superbly choreographed action sequences and strong performances from at least some of the big name actors in the cast list, a cast list which reads like a distilled Who's Who of French cinema.    Daniel Auteuil is surprisingly good as the tough introspective gangster Minda, a much darker kind of role to the ones he is known for playing.  There are also some impressive supporting contributions, from the likes of Nicolas Duvauchelle and Philippe Nahon, but many of the star performers fail to shine much brighter than a low energy light bulb running off a flat car battery.  Monica Bellucci, Michel Blanc and Jacques Dutronc are either miscast or just couldn't be bothered to earn their enormous paycheques.  It is hard to know which is the bigger turn off, the ugly over-saturated photography or the casting of so many A-list actors who don't appear to give a damn. 

Whilst Alain Corneau deserves some credit for seeking to pump fresh blood into the dried out veins of a well-worn genre, the end result is so imperfect that you wonder if the exercise was worth while.  In his version of Le Deuxième souffle, Jean-Pierre Melville crafts an existentialist thriller of immense power and subtly, one which rewards both the eye and the intellect.  By contrast, Corneau's film is little more than a shallow half-hearted gangster film which tries, a little to hard, to conceal its manifest weaknesses through some excessive and totally misguided stylisation.  The film may impress some with a taste for the outrageously avant-garde, but true devotees of the French policier are better off sticking with Melville's Le Deuxième souffle, one of the greatest films of its genre.

Film Synopsis

In the late 1950s, Gustave Minda, known to all as Gu, is one of France's most notorious hoodlums, but the law catches up with him in the end.  Arrested, he is given a life prison sentence but he manages to escape and is soon on the run again.  He plans to flee to another country far away and begin a new life, accompanied by Manouche, the woman he loves.  But for this he needs a large amount of money, and as his own resources are non-existent he must resort to yet another criminal exploit.

The hold-up comes off exactly as Gu planned, but as he makes his escape he has no inkling of what lies ahead of him.  Superintendent Blot has resolved to capture the crook by any means at his disposal, and by leading Gu's criminal associates to think he is a police informer he has hit upon a sure-fire way to bring about his downfall.  But Gu is a far more determined adversary than Blot had bargained for.  To regain his honour, the gangster is prepared to go to any lengths...