TAVERNIER: "...those films I will not say are philosophical, but they are like thoughtful reexamination of a genre, like a jazz musician would take a standard by Gershwin and redo it in his own way. He is taking-- He's taking This Gun for Hire, combine it maybe with one or two other films, and he makes his own version. He is playing part of the melody, but in such a way that it's-- he has taken different chords, playing with different kind of harmonies, yet you have the melody." - Tavernier in 2008 on an interview on the Criterion DVD for Melville's Le Deuxième Souffle (1966).
While many Melville films have enjoyed quite a high profile, such as Le Samouraï (1967), when I see one as incredible as this (Le Deuxième Souffle), I wonder why it has been relegated to the shadows for so long-- and I then wonder how many other awesome Melville films are out there that we still can't see...! I don't think this film was even on VHS, so this really is a treat of a release. Check it out now!
