Snatched this DVD off a pile at a used DVD store. Usually story – a great film, heard great things, just lucked out when I saw it.
Terrific cop flick. Don’t think Michael Mann, think early Sidney Lumet with a French Jane Tennison as a protagonist.
The basic story is Antoine, a rookie police officer from rural France, gets an assignment in downtown Paris. His unit is run by a hard-nosed, attractive career cop with an unsteady seat on the wagon. On the surface, the crimes he starts off investigating and the cops he works alongside are nothing we don’t see every day, but the director’s intimate style really brings us into their everyday lives and without cliché, illustrates how people’s frailties can wear down dedicated police officers. One memorable scene has Antoine discussing police life with a cop of Algerian descent who is able to see through the other cops’ bullshit and see the unspoken class prejudice and racism beneath.
The violence, when it finally happens, is unexpected and brutal and sums up a philosophical question which is perhaps the theme of the film and is, at one point, put into words by Antoine.
Highly recommended. If you're ever thinking of grabbing Pride and Glory or some other MoR or worse crime film, check this out instead.
Terrific cop flick. Don’t think Michael Mann, think early Sidney Lumet with a French Jane Tennison as a protagonist.
The basic story is Antoine, a rookie police officer from rural France, gets an assignment in downtown Paris. His unit is run by a hard-nosed, attractive career cop with an unsteady seat on the wagon. On the surface, the crimes he starts off investigating and the cops he works alongside are nothing we don’t see every day, but the director’s intimate style really brings us into their everyday lives and without cliché, illustrates how people’s frailties can wear down dedicated police officers. One memorable scene has Antoine discussing police life with a cop of Algerian descent who is able to see through the other cops’ bullshit and see the unspoken class prejudice and racism beneath.
The violence, when it finally happens, is unexpected and brutal and sums up a philosophical question which is perhaps the theme of the film and is, at one point, put into words by Antoine.
Highly recommended. If you're ever thinking of grabbing Pride and Glory or some other MoR or worse crime film, check this out instead.
