Police

French director Maurice Pialat mixes his usual approach of dialogue- heavy improvisation and his own slightly twisted sense of 'realism' with the police procedural genre. Anchoring Police is the formidable Gerard Depardieu playing Inspector Mangin, a chunky pitbull of a man who mixes charm, playfulness and violence together as he plays his way through the crime-fighting game with equal amounts of efficiency and carelessness. Pialat's camera, loose and restless, seems fascinated by him, and Depardieu's performance devours the film, overshadowing the director's themes of loneliness and criminality in France.

The first two-thirds of Police are it's best, as Mangin is caught up investigating a bunch of Tunisian drug-dealing criminals, and has his eye caught by the doe-eyed and beautiful Noria (Sophie Marceau), the girlfriend of one of the chief suspects. It's in these early scenes that Mangin is off the leash, slamming suspects heads into tables as a manner of interrogation, and, outside of work, joking with his friend Lambert (Richard Anconina), the criminal lawyer for most of the scumbags that Mangin puts away. Lambert is good at what he does, and most of his clients get off, yet he and Mangin laugh and joke about the system. It's all just a game to Mangin, something for him to do in order to satisfy his many appetites, as the line between the police and criminals is blurred.

Then Police settles down somewhat, as Noria turns from frightened innocent to fully-fledged femme fatale. She gets herself involved in a stolen wad of cash, and suddenly no-one is safe. Mangin is slowly revealed to be a lonely widower, and the film loses it's momentum. The fast dialogue and the murky world of pushers, pimps and prostitutes fades in favour of long takes in empty rooms, and Mangin suddenly isn't as interesting as he was. Sometimes it's better to prolong the mystery, to keep a character's motivations skewed. But Police is still a great ride, featuring one of Depardieu's best ever performances.

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Maurice Pialat's POLICE begins with an extensive interrogation by a cop... played by Gerard Depardieu. The shots almost exclusively flick back and forth in medium shot. To begin with, the criminal is defiant. But over the course of almost 10 minutes, he's slowly broken down into a confession. It's a fascinating scene to watch... and although it's not recreated directly throughout the rest of the movie (10 minute scenes with two shots would get tiresome quickly...), the mood of the opening scene permeates through the whole of POLICE. The movie is a slow breakdown of the facade people build around themselves.

Much of the dialogue seems improvised. Characters stumble over words, and get caught in seemingly unrelated conversations. The "Masters of Cinema" extras DVD catches Pialat berating actors on set... trying to pull something out of the improvisation. He was apparently a real pain to work for, but the end result seems to work in POLICE.

Depardieu is the centre of attention, playing the slightly shonky cop, Louis. He's hulking in size, 6ft tall and a pretty wide load, often towering over the bad guys and dwarfing the various girls he flirts with. At times, Louis is almost comedic, grabbing every ass around him. He thinks he's a whizz with the ladies and the greatest cop around... and because he throws his weight into it all, people believe him.

The depth of POLICE is we see Louis behind the charade, progressively doubting himself. He's falling in love with one of his suspects, Noria (played by Sophie Marceau, who ended up sinking into being a Bond girl in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) and it's eating away at him. He's bending more rules than ever, and getting unnecessarily interested in a girl whose own family don't trust her. Louis becomes frantic, reaching out for prostitutes, drink and - eventually - frantically humping Noria in the Police HQ.

The strength of the movie - and whether you'll like it or not - revolves around Louis. He's very irritating at the start of the movie... a letch, an idiot, someone searching for reactions from people. He's sleazy and seemingly irremediable. Yet, at the movie goes on and as his vulnerabilities creep through, he becomes strangely likable. Can he trust Noria? Is she leading him on to save herself, or is she as lost as he is? So many films have predictable relationships but this one is a good 'un. We neither trust Noria or Louis, yet we feel sympathetic towards both of them. This all leads to a real doozy of an ending - and a thought provoking one too.

POLICE isn't a quick watch. It lacks dynamic scenes, and it's only for those who can take constant dialogue. It's also not a movie laden with style. But when close-ups are used, they're used to great effect. Louis's confused big-nosed mug... Noria's seemingly flawless good looks... something's going on behind those surfaces. You may gripe at the movie needing to be shorter and tighter, but it'll leave an impact because of these two fascinating characters. And, for that reason, it's well worth getting hold of a copy of POLICE.

The French make some very fine films. They also make some really pretentious stinkers. This is of the former variety.

A very well acted and directed film. The seediness of the criminals, prostitutes, the lawyer, and the cops is very well portrayed. You do need a scorecard to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this flick. Which would appear to be exactly the response that the director, Maurice Pialat, wishes to elicit.

Sophie Marceau does a fine job portraying the beautiful but ethically and morally empty Noria. It's very evident that she's using Depardieu's character to achieve her own ends. However, Depardieu knows it too, but cannot help himself.

It's Depardieu's movie and he plays his character perfectly. A combination of arrogance, brutality, macho, humor, and vulnerability. You come to realize that for all of his violence, groping women, and swagger that on some level he is a lost innocent. In one scene where he and Noria are in a car making out, he comments that they're acting like a couple of kids. Noria responds something to the effect that that's exactly why it's so good.

The final scene is played out perfectly by the two main characters. Depardieu is perfect in portraying both anger and vulnerability. The viewer is left with a view of the tough guy left broken hearted by the beautiful but empty hearted girl. The movie is about the basic human tragedy and the grave error of living only for one's own appetites.

Very good movie. It gives the initial impression of only being a tough, French cop film. But it's really a morality play which is done in such an artful manner that you barely notice until the ending. It's also very romantic--if only in a failed sense. It appears to me to make the point that love can only live where there is honesty and a willingness to be open and vulnerable. Hence, it's inevitable death in the sordid world of the "Police".

You know "Police" isn't going to be a conventional policier simply because it's directed by Maurice Pialat and Pialat doesn't do conventional. Yes, there's a 'thriller' plot involving drug dealers but the plot is secondary to the way both the police and the criminals are seen to go about their business which in many ways is much the same, (a crooked lawyer, nicely played by Richard Anconina, moves between them with seemingly consummate ease).

The central character is Gerard Depardieu's charming, brutalizing inspector who thinks nothing of beating up suspects to get a confession and both he and the film may remind you of Kirk Douglas in "Detective Story" and it's a beautiful piece of acting. Equally good, as the drug dealer's girl that Depardieu falls for, is Sophie Marceau. Ultimately the 'thriller' plot is all but jettisoned as Pialat digs deeper into the lives and backgrounds of his characters which is just as well as the plot becomes both very complicated and a little ridiculous. Still, this is a Pialat picture; mean, melancholy and fiercely intelligent.

Just when you thought Gérard Depardieu couldn't get any sexier, he made Police. Ladies, if you want to see him as a tough-talking cop, you've got to rent this movie.

This isn't your typical cop flick. It's not loaded with action scenes, it's not particularly gritty, and it's not a comedy about two unlikely partners finding a lasting friendship as they bicker and solve an impossible case. This is just a day-in-the-life movie about cops trying to bust drug-dealers. They have to slog through uncooperative witnesses, red tape, clues that don't lead anywhere, and a moral line that they can't cross but sometimes do. Sophie Marceau is the leading lady, a bad girl who only thinks of herself. She's cute as a button, though, so even though he knows she's bad news, Gérard can't ignore the attraction he feels for her. Check this one out if you're in the mood for a French flick from the '80s with two cutie-pies as the leads.