The Second Wind [DVD] [2007]

The other reviewer here has done well, and not much can be added to such a precise review.For me having seen the original & for some years knew of this version but unable to see it until now, I had some hopes for a really good movie. Based on the former movie & actor Daniel Auteuil, as in my opinion is currently the most talented male actor in French cinema!Just see "Mr. 73" or retiled "The Last Deadly Mission" to see a truly terrific performance of a down & out cop on his last legs! And same director I might add! Or "On Guard" or Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring, Le Huitième jour and Un Coeur en Hiver just to name a few! Nor does he disappoint here, but the movie does!Unfortunately the movie lacks a heart beat, or rather it has low blood pressure. And becomes a monotone & flat mostly thru-out with the exception of the few action scenes that are really terrific!It has Melville's story & most scenes & dialogue reproduced, but it lacks energy to lift it off the screen & get the viewer involved!Daniel Auteuil has the age to play this & in fact is older than Lino Ventura was in the original and his age adds to his world weary escaped prisoner persona! He looks like he needs a Second Wind, but can't find it anywhere!If I where a teacher I'd grade this as "C". And the original as A-minus! You most likely won't find this for rental anywhere as the region 2 precludes that usually. So if you must see it go for it, but don't expect to be blown over by a fast paced action picture!Bon chance!Also, the copy I received from Amazon itself, via a vendor selling Amazon Fulfilled products was a region 1. I was expecting a region 2 & have a region free player, but received a R.1. And the art work on the DVD cover is different from the product page; see my added photos. So you may want to contact a vendor or two to check and see just what version they carry. Perhaps you can purchase a R.1 for your player!

French director Alain Corneau has spent so much of his recent career making mood and character pieces that don't really go anywhere that it's all too easy to forget he started out making thrillers. From the poor critical and box-office reaction to his 2007 version of Le Deuxieme Soufflé, or The Second Wind as it's called on UK DVD, he might have regretted going back to his old stamping ground for what would be his penultimate film, especially after the unflattering comparisons with Jean-Pierre Melville's 1966 version of Jose Giovanni's novel, but it's a surprisingly effective thriller on its own terms. While it's relatively unusual to see him handling a story with a distinct beginning, middle and end these days, he responds surprisingly well to the pulp material and even improves on some aspects of Melville's version. Whereas Melville's film, not one of his best by any stretch of the imagination, was a few set pieces the director was interested in and a lot of exposition he wasn't, Corneau's version (co-written by Giovanni) feels like a more complete narrative that has its director's complete attention throughout and one that doesn't outstay its welcome at two-and-a-half hours.The film's biggest hurdle is its usually reliable leading man. A miscast Daniel Auteuil convincingly conveys the out of shape and past it aspect of his escaped con looking for a big score to fund his getaway only to find himself set up as an informer and desperate to clear his name but, despite looking surprisingly like a shrunken Lino Ventura in a couple of sequences, lacks the iconic presence the part really needs and never really comes into his own until the last third. We learn more about the character from the way other characters describe him than we ever get out of his performance, resulting in a nominal leading man who never really lives up to his constant buildup ("In this rotten world, he has the guts to accept what he does - the supreme elegance of a lost man. Gu signs his crimes," "He has the luxury of having nothing to lose while we just dabble in felony"). While the discrepancy between what he was, what he is now, how others see him and how he sees himself is intentional, Auteuil still comes up short because you simply can't imagine him ever being the stuff of underworld legend.Far more convincing is Eric Cantona, a credibly thuggish presence as a loyal partner in crime - he doesn't need to be a great actor because his look and his bearing does all the work for him. But then this is a film where the supporting characters are often more interesting than the anti-hero. Despite a disappointing opening scene that pales beside Paul Meurisse's showstopping entrance in Melville's film, Michel Blanc soon makes the part of the world-weary flic on Auteuil's trail his own, while Jacques Dutronc brings more depth to the stylish but noncommittal intermediary Orloff than is probably on the page. Daniel Duval's wonderfully named thief Venture Ricci and Philippe Nahon's brutal cop have less to work with but still manage to make an impression, though the best that can be said for Monica Bellucci's moll is that while she may not be particularly good she's not particularly bad enough to be a problem.It doesn't reach the epic heights you sense it might be aspiring to but the professional violence and the setpieces are well handled, with the big heist (now taking place in a warehouse district rather than a country road) particularly effective. We also get to see the infamous water torture sequence that caused so many censorship problems in the previous adaptation this time, though the hiding the guns sequence that made such an impression on John Woo is missing this time round. It's more stylised than Melville's film, with dreamlike slow motion in some scenes and an unreal color scheme of simultaneously saturated but slightly sickly reds, greens and amber throughout looking more like a Jeunot and Caro film or the kind of unreal color of a 60s comic book than the classic noir or neo-noir look. The film only changes to natural color in the film's closing shot as the public - a few indistinct innocent bystanders notwithstanding. otherwise unseen for the entire movie - return to reclaim the scene of the crime, oblivious to the violence that took place there as they go about their everyday lives as if in a parallel world. And while, at the end of the day the film may not have much more to say than that criminals live in a different and more exaggerated world to the rest of us, if you take it as simply a decent thriller that's probably enough.Optimum's UK PAL DVD has a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with English subtitles. the only extra is the trailer.

Alain Corneau hatte seine Meriten um den Film polar, den französischen Gangsterfilm also, ja eigentlich schon zu Genüge angehäuft. Mit solch zeitlosen Meisterwerken wie "Police Python 357" oder "Wahl der Waffen" hat er sich einen bleibenden Platz im Parthenon dieser Gattung gesichert. Warum er ausgerechnet auf die Idee kommen musste, Jean-Pierre Melvilles "Der zweite Atem" noch einmal zu verfilmen, das verschließt sich mir wirklich. Ja, natürlich kann man das machen. Aber dann sollte man sich vielleicht die Mühe machen, die Story in die Gegenwart zu transponieren. Aus unerfindlichen Gründen aber lässt Corneau sein Remake ebenfalls Ende der fünfziger Jahre spielen. Unnötig zu erwähnen, was folgt: ein Kulissenfilm, der den Zuschauer mit seinen schier endlosen Filtereinsätzen in den schaurigsten Farben mit seiner aufkommenden Übelkeit allein lässt. Ein paar Möbel machen noch kein Ambiente, und das zieht sich unerträglich von Anfang bis Ende. An den Schauspielern liegt es nicht: Auteuil als Gu Minda, Eric Cantona als Alban, Monica Belluci als Manouche oder Michel Blanc als Blot - kann man alles so besetzen und sie spielen professionell gut. Alles andere ist nur furchtbar.

Something went wrong with this film and I don't quite know what it was or how it happened. The story is the usual gangland operatics, with guns instead of arias, and certainly like the average opera the uncommitted will always leave the piece thinking that less would have been more, sometimes much more. The actors' skills were strong, with good ensemble playing, but those skills got rather suffocated by the atmospheric sets and lighting, which were wonderful in their own right, and if viewed in the cinema would have been a highlight of the cinema viewing. On DVD the set and lighting perhaps rather undercut the grit in the story of the imprisoned gang boss who escapes and wreaks a trail of havoc behind him in some misguided but personal notion of honour. The music aided the drama a lot, it very much glued together the acting, the sets and the sense of drama and made the scenes in which it featured far more coherent. Eric Cantona is brilliant in it because he was well cast as a heavy/sidekick, I would like to have seen more of him. Monica Bellucci smouldered wonderfully well as the moll/night club owner, Manouche, she had some great costumes too. Her black plastic-look mac was highlight against the perpetual drabs of all the men being well suited, tied, and hatted. The cars in this film are brilliant to see too, and real memory joggers for anyone with a memory of older cars. One small old memory I have is the sound that older cars make when the doors are shut as compared with the smoother sound of car doors today. But Daniel Autiel as the escapee gang boss who was seen to be past his prime struggled to convey the conflict that I assume the character should have had, and for being set in 1958 the whole thing seemed improbably glamorous, but perhaps this was the high living end of gangland. Finally each time a bullet hits a human being the result was savoured in slow motion, with lots of blood coming from the exit points. Once or twice that was okay-if you like that sort of thing-but personally I would have preffered some variety in the ways the increasingly operatic deaths were filmed, it increasingly became a one-note drama. If it ever appears at your local art-house cinema try seeing it there where the gun-shot operatics and small details will make more sense, seem more integrated and will be more absorbing than they are on the small screen. Finally the title let the film down, if the title had reflected the body count, the level of violence in reaching that body count, or the personal struggle of the character Daniel Autiel played as probably described in the book then this film would have had a much more dramatic title and given the project a focus it lacked.

No plot spoilers included.While I have not seen the earlier Jean-Pierre Melville film (1966) of the same story, it is probably safe to assume that this does not measure up to Melville (what does, these days?), but although Corneau's version is a triumph of style over content there is still a lot for fans of French gangster films to enjoy.For a start, the film is tremendously stylish with a striking colour scheme made up of shades of red and green (in the underworld spaces, e.g. the nightclubs, bars, and safehouses), and gold (in the outside spaces such as the countryside in the aftermath of the prison break that opens the film, and in Marseilles where Gu is close to freedom), and also some very elegant (and nifty) camerawork. The costume and set designers have also outdone themselves -the film is beautiful to look at. There is also a very classy cast involved. I would watch Daniel Auteuil in anything but the cast also includes other noteworthy names such as Monica Bellucci (yes, she can act- even if she doesn't need to stretch herself much in this role), Michel Blanc, Jacques Dutronc, Gilbert Melki, Eric Cantona (yes, *that* one), and Philppe Nahon (an appearance by the latter once again indicating that something deeply unpleasant is about to happen).The plot somewhat lets these first-rate actors down, as what could be a straight-forward tale of honour (and the lack of it) among thieves and an older generation finding themselves out of step with the cutthroat youngsters on their way up, becomes increasingly convoluted. It's nearly two and a half hours long, but at several points feels like things have been cut out to reduce the running time -it would almost have been better as a mini series rather than just one film. I should also warn you that it is unexpectedly gory in terms of its violence -you expect people to be shot in a gangster film, but there's quite a bit of overkill going on here (it is squib central). Why have I given it four stars when I have those reservations? Well partly because I can't award stars in half measures (I'd say it's a 3.5 star film) but also because I think it's worth seeing just for the visual luxuriousness on display -there aren't many films being made at the moment that are this sumptuous.

I like French crime movies and from the cast and reviews on Amazon, this seemed like a good buy. I had never heard of the director but will make a point of avoiding anything else of his.Filmed as a hommage to the French gangster movies of the fifties or as post-modern irony (take your pick) this movie is self-conscious, pompously portentious and pretentious. It is shot in radiant hot golds and brilliant whites and every scene is deliberately overlit. It sets its story in the gritty, shabby world of sixties French gangsters, yet the period objects, cars, guns, are polished to a jewel-like finish. The gangster's nighclubs are astonishingly beautiful, lit by a million electric lights, and have a luxury and sophistication that Hollywood could not match. All this co-existing with a sixties France where the electricity worked one day in three and malnultrition was rife.This would not be so bad if the movie made any sense. The plot lurches around, from veteran con (Daniel Auteil) on the run, to nightclub double-crosses to an armoured car takedown to a gangster revenge shootout, whilst chucking in a doomed romance. All the characters are badly used by the director and Auteil swings from clever con to passionate latin killer to dumbo taken in by the police. Monica Bellucci is a club owner whose character goes from clever to bewildered girlie within the space of two scenes. And for all the scenic glitz, Bellucci has no glamour and looks fat (very fat) and tacky. Auteil has aged badly and is fat and tired in the role, and simply a magnet for the improbable coincidences that move the movie along. Eric Cantona is a key character in the first half of the movie after which he simply dissappears without explanation. Every so often an omnisicient police inspector pops up to narrate the movie up to that point and tell everyone what is going on. By the end i was wondering why, if he knew everything, he doid not solve the case in the first five minutes and give me two and a half hours of my life back. Every key emotional moment in the movie is telegraphed in case we do not get it and the camera lingers on these moments for what feels like minutes. My word, but this movie really drags on. I watched it to the end but it felt like I had been watching it for days.Apparently the director is a veteran of French cinema. This movie looks like it was a first effort by someone who directs pop videos. Avoid.

I think Daniel Auteuil is a great actor, though his talent, like any actor’s talent may be wasted in the wrong film (with Auteuil one such wasted film would be Après Vous, which for me just did not work. On the other hand, here, Daniel Auteuil excels in this very stylised film that has equally good performances from the rest of the cast (Monica Bellucci, Michel Blanc, Gilbert Melki and Eric Cantona to name a few), along with direction from Alain Corneau, great camerawork (and angles), a fantastic soundtrack, a brilliant story – in short everything about The Second Wind makes this a stunning piece of cinema for me.A Cops ‘n Robbers story set in 1960’s France and having much to do with honour amongst one’s peers, this is a film I would recommend to anyone who likes Daniel Auteuil – even anyone who may have only seen him in Après Vous as you couldn’t get two more different films.There are no Extras on the DVD other than a Trailer, which is perhaps a shame as a Making Of feature would have been interesting I’m sure. Still a five star film though.