Michel Constantin

In a Paris prison cell, five inmates use every ounce of their tenacity and ingenuity in an elaborate attempt to tunnel to freedom. Based on the novel by José Giovanni, Jacques Becker’s LE TROU balances lyrical humanism with a tense, unshakable air of imminent danger.

With his customary restraint and ruthless attention to detail, director Jean-Pierre Melville follows the parallel tracks of French underworld criminal Gu (the inimitable Lino Ventura), escaped from prison and roped into one last robbery, and the suave inspector, Blot (Paul Meurisse), relentlessly seeking him. 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.

A professional hit-man sets out to take revenge on the woman and the mob boss who used his mistress to set up a murder plot against him.

A fisherman with a dark past is forced to partake in a shady smuggling operation when his wife and daughter are held hostage by his former associates.