Beginning in medias res with the final leap of a dangerous prison escape and the subsequent sprint through a dense forest, Le deuxième souffle immediately announces its ruthless fixation on forward motion. Gruff, penniless hoodlum Gustave Minda (Lino Ventura) wants to escape to Italy once and for all but needs a final score; Marseille nightclub owner Paul Ricci (Raymond Pellegrin) is ready and waiting with a scheme to rob a northbound security van transporting a ton of platinum. Deaths pile up, many of them inside moving vehicles, as Gustave maps a bullheaded path to salvation and Paul Meurisse’s police investigator follows a few steps behind, his conniving intelligence the mirror image of his prey’s hard-headed pragmatism. Even as the film lumbers toward a fatalistic conclusion all but guaranteed by its pitiless opening epigraph, its documentary-like attention to detail and dexterously controlled set pieces—including the protracted central heist sequence—remain hypnotic throughout.

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