Police **** (1985, Gérard Depardieu, Sophie Marceau, Richard Anconina, Pascale Rocard, Sandrine Bonnaire) – Classic Movie Review 6055

Co-writer/ director Maurice Pialat’s urgent and complicated 1985 French thriller stars Gérard Depardieu as Paris police inspector Louis Mangin, a jaded bent cop who cracks open a Tunisian drug operation, but finds himself helplessly infatuated with one of the crooks, Noria, played by the fascinating Sophie Marceau.

It is a complex tale simply told, and shot in a dirty-looking, grungy semi-documentary realist style, which dissects the human soul in unsparing detail, and comes to some rather unpleasant conclusions.

What starts off as a startlingly well produced hard-boiled action picture is suddenly transformed half-way through into a microscopic study of decayed morality.

The dark, seductive atmosphere allows vintage director Pialat to burrow deep into the uncomfortably unsympathetic area of the human condition which film-makers usually ignore, and without releasing his grip on the viewer.

Also in the cast are Richard Anconina, Pascale Rocard, Sandrine Bonnaire and Franck Karoul.

It is written by Pialat, Catherine Breillat, Sylvie Danton and Jacques Fieschi, based on an original idea by Breillat, shot by Luciano Tovoli, scored by Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki and designed by Constantin Mejinksy.

Pialat and Depardieu previously made Under the Sun of Satan together.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6055

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