“Just
because you’re
on the right side
of the law doesn’t
mean you’ll
do
things by the book — and in
Maurice
Pialat’s
gritty drama Police,
it’s
obsessively-determined detective
Louis Mangin (Gérard Depardieu) who
steps over the line to nail a drugs ring...” ANY FILM THAT STARS THE CHARMING and well-respected Gérard Depardieu
is worth watching — and this idiosyncratic police thriller that
was a great commercial success in France is no exception, even if the character
he plays is somewhat flawed.
Police comes to DVD as part of The Masters Of Cinema Series with an outstanding
cast under the auspices of legendary Director Maurice Pialat (Loulou,
Van Gogh), who is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of
French cinema.
Written with Catherine Breillat (Director of The Last Mistress, Anatomy
Of Hell, Fat Girl) but relying in equal measure upon Pialat's improvisatory
control (directing, among others, his star-actress from A nos amours,
Sandrine Bonnaire) Police is thought of as a genre-defying excursion
rivalled only by John Cassavetes' The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie in
the pantheon of cinema's most idiosyncratic thrillers.
At times a little off-beat and perplexing, Police grasps every opportunity
to string you along and then lets go — resulting in a surprising twist
that is dropped into the film almost casually towards the end and that leads
you along yet another interesting avenue to be explored.
Intriguing from the opening shot where hard-nosed, unconventional detective
Louis Mangin (Gérard Depardieu, who also collaborated with Pialat on Loulou,
Sous le soleil de Satan and Le Garçu) is brutally questioning
Tunisian Tarak 'Claude' Louati (Meaachou Bentahar) about his supposed criminal
activities as a drugs courier and middle man, Police dares to be different.
Mangin's brutal method of investigation finds its obsessive outlet in this attempt
to crack a Tunisian narcotics ring based in Marseilles and with connections
in Paris. While questioning Tarak 'off the record', Mangin manages to inveigle
him into coming up with some names — including the Slimane brothers Simon
(Jonathan Leïna), Maxime (Abdel Kader Touati) and Jean. He also says he has
seen Simon with a girl called Noria (expertly played by Sophie Marceau in one
of her first screen roles).
Noria accidentally leads the police to a young man who claims to be Nasrine
Slimane and who — despite Mangin's over-enthusiastic physical coercion
after he arrests them both — coolly and steadfastly refuses to admit that
he has ever been called Simon and that he is not a heroin trafficker. Noria
also insists that she is innocent, even though Mangin tells her that both Raoul
Bensimi and Tarak Louati implicated her and Simon.
Bent lawyer Michel Lambert (Richard Aconina), who appears to be hand-in-glove
with the underworld, is given the task of getting Noria and Nasrine released
and is constantly seen in the company of the criminal fraternity — even
though he socialises with Mangin.
But Mangin is being drawn into Noria's world as he finds himself attracted to
her — an event that takes the progress of the film on an unexpected and
emotionally ambiguous course — and the lines between 'right' and 'wrong'
and 'power' and 'freedom' terminally blur. Things get even hotter when Noria
makes a decision that is to put the life of both herself and her brother Clément
at risk.
The widowed Mangin's love life is anything but simple — his romantic interests
also include trainee Superintendent Marie Vedret (Pascale Recard) and Lydie
(Sandrine Bonnaire) who is associated with the violent Dédé (Yann Dedet). Violence
in the film is minimal and not over-explicit.
Maurice Pialat's Police delivers on the raw promise of its title, insofar
as much of its action qualifies as an insistently 'procedural' descent into
the Paris drugs underworld. But the hyper-real route that the film takes to
arrive there, before veering into a zone of dangerous emotional play contributes
to a disorienting, adventurous and ultimately tremendously exciting experience
unlike any 'police-thriller' ever before conceived.
Starring three of the most famous and respected actors in world cinema —
Gérard Depardieu, Sophie Marceau and Sandrine Bonnaire — Police
also features: Franck Karoui as René; Jonathan Leïna as Simon; Jacques Mathou
as Gauthier; Bernard Fuzellier as Nez Cassé; Meaachou Bentahar as Claude; Yann
Dedet as Dédé; Abdel Kader Touat as Maxime; Bechir Idani as Barman René; Sylvaine
Maupu as Clément; and Taya Ouzrout as Aïcha. The film is produced by Emmanuel
Schlumberger and contains some female full-frontal nudity.
The Police DVD comes in a 2-disc Special Edition that includes: Gorgeous
new anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio | New and improved
English subtitle translations | 2003 video interview with director and Police
co-screenwriter Catherine Breillat, conducted by former Cahiers du cinéma
editor-in-chief, and current director of the Cinémathèque Française, Serge
Toubiana | Zoom Sur Police (Zoom Onto Police) (2002) — a 34-minute
documentary by Virginie Apiou about the production of the film | Vintage screen
tests featuring Maurice Pialat and C Galmiche, the inspiration for the character
of Lambert | Excerpt from a 1985 episode of Cinéma Cinémas shot during
the course of the 17th day of production on Police | 23-minute video
discussion with Yann Dedet, the editor of Police | The film's original
trailer, along with trailers for other Maurice Pialat films to be released by
The Masters of Cinema Series | Forty-page booklet containing a new essay by
filmmaker and critic Dan Sallitt and newly translated interviews with Maurice
Pialat.
• The Masters Of Cinema Series is proud to
present Maurice Pialat's splendid 1985 film Police in a magnificent,
digitally-restored transfer for the first time on DVD in the UK (release date
22 September, 2008). Catalogue No: EKA40293 | Barcode: 5060000402933 | RRP:
£22.99 | Running Time: 109 Minutes | Format: Colour | Year: 1985.
"At times a little off-beat and perplexing, Police grasps every opportunity
to string you along and then lets go — resulting in a surprising twist
that is dropped into the film almost casually towards the end and that leads
you along yet another interesting avenue to be explored" — MotorBar
“Just
because you’re
on the right side