Le Deuxieme Souffle, the great French crime film by the master of the French crime thriller Jean-Pierre Melville, is on TCM tonight as their Sunday night foreign film; which is funny, because it's a movie about a big-time criminal who escapes from prison and participates in an armored car heist where guards are killed; and just today, a notorious French criminal, who took part in an armored car heist where a police officer was killed, escaped from prison in a brazen helicopter getaway.
I have to wonder: did they plan the escape to coincide with the showing of the movie? Maybe it was the secret plan schedule: bring the helicopter the day of the night TCM is showing that Melville movie that's quite like his life. Also, I wonder: were they at all inspired to use a helicopter for the escape plan by the helicopter heist of a moving train from another great Jean-Pierre Melville crime movie: Un Flic? (I'd love to think so.)
Here's a link to the IMDB page for Le Deuxieme Souffle:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060305/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Here's a link to the Wikipedia page for Un Flic, which describes the plot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_flic
And here's a link to the NBC news story about the escape:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/notorious-french-criminal-freed-heavily-armed-men-helicopter-n888141
