Le Doulos

The French have always gone gaga for American film noir, none more so than Jean-Pierre Melville. In classics like 1967?s Le Samouraï, the director put hard-boiled dialogue into the mouths of chain-smoking Parisian tough guys, adding a soupçon of Left Bank existential dread to the mix. Now, this pair of lesser-known Melville gems Le Doulos and Le Deuxième Souffle — both centering on doomed heists — gets the full Criterion treatment: lush black-and-white transfers and a slew of EXTRAS including film-nerd pensées and archival interviews with the late master. Gitanes sold separately. A-