Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1966: Paul Meurisse in Le Deuxième Souffle

Paul Meurisse did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Commissaire Blot in Le Deuxième Souffle.

Le Deuxième Souffle follows an escaped gangster Gu (Lino Ventura) through "one last job" which naturally has complications. It's a very good film, though it is a little too gradually paced for its own good as it occasionally loses its momentum when the editing could easily pick up its pace.

Paul Meurisse plays some seemingly required  element for many a crime story, which is the cop trying to catch the crook. Early on the film you might be mistaken this might be a Heat, style situation where we follow both the cop and the crook at an even keel. This might in part come from the grand impression Paul Meurisse makes as the detective Blot in his first scene. This as he comes in to investigate a hit on a gangster in a crime intertwined restaurant owned by the escaped Gu's lover Manouche (Christine Fabrega). Meurisse has to be said is absolutely brilliant in this scene. This as Blot investigates the crime scene by basically noting all the logical inconsistencies of the likely explanations of everyone at the restaurant to deny anything happened in a typical gangster sort of way. Meurisse is marvelous in his sarcastic delivery yet incisive manner as he goes about each piece of the crime scene to artfully dissect it while mocking the witnesses by already noting will be their excuses for each element. Meurisse is just marvelous in this scene as he is wholly engaging and absolutely entertaining in this sequence. This in as he both shows the cunning of Blot as he breaks down each element, but is also just extremely captivating while doing it. Meurisse in the single scene setting up a fantastic adversary for the crooks we will be following otherwise, this just through that comic yet also exact manner he delivers in this first scene of his.

Meurisse distinguishes effectively this sort of purposeful grandstanding though against the detective who obviously does care about the job he is doing. This as we later see him attempt to interrogate Manouche alone, who is in danger within the life. Meurisse is terrific by projecting a different more intense tone. He still grants an underlying levity about the man, but his eyes reinforce the gravity he is trying to convey to her in an attempt to actually get her to speak. Meurisse excels in creating the sense of Blot's methods as he attempts to make any headway within the criminal world. In one part where he attempts to derive what he wants from another criminal, Meurisse is effective by once against maneuvering the scene a little differently. This still with a slight callous manner suggesting Blot's indifference to the man he is interrogating as a person, however his accentuation is upon the serious nature of the situation in which he speaks. Meurisse creating the sense of Blot's subtle manipulation of the gangster in an attempt to try to get what he wants as this sort of artful dance based on the motivations of whoever he is speaking to. An essential moment in this is when he is doing the same with Manouche's bodyguard/valet, and Meurisse delivers again a more jovial quality in speaking to the man as though he is a friend. This against the moment the man walks away and the spirit drifts from his face showing again the methods of Blot. I honestly wish there had been more of Blot, in part Meurisse excels in being both entertaining while also creating the sense of the ways of his detective, but also in terms of potentially creating more of a dynamic. Instead the Blot scenes are closer to afterthoughts, or would be if Meurisse were less engaging in the part. This I think would've most served though an element later in the film where we get a contrast between Blot and another Commissaire who engages in torture. Meurisse in his moments projecting a smooth operator who succeeds through careful manipulations against the other man who just does it by force. Nonetheless Meurisse makes the most out of this idea in the final scenes of the film where he very quietly stands against them. Meurisse though is great in the scene of trying to get a reporter to take evidence that reveals the torture, this beginning with a subtle clever push exemplified in his expression that slowly morphs to exasperation as he basically has to spell out how to get the evidence to them. Although I do think it is a little unfortunate that the film largely makes Blot mostly there to serve an overly specific function after his first scene, Meurisse excels even within those limitations. This in creating a character who leaves an impression, even if his first scene is his high point, that would be worthy to act as a proper lead in a film that followed Commissaire Blot.