Paul Meurisse

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.

Long underappreciated and unseen, this tragic masterpiece—Jean-Pierre Melville’s most personal film, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel—recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the French Resistance. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret star as intrepid underground fighters in an unsparing tale of defiance in the face of insurmountable odds.

The wife and mistress of a cruel headmaster conspire to kill him; after the murder is committed, his corpse disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women.