Aka - The Cop
Just as the Italian Poliziotteschi films were about to take off, this French
Policier beat them to the punch with many of the elements that they were
to incorporate. The brutal gangsters and the maverick cop who was willing
to break the rules to bring them to justice. By being as brutal as the gangsters.
This is a morally conflicted film, so much so that the French government
tried to ban it and, in the end forced it to make cuts. It was perhaps a
sign of the times in how it displays graphic violence which was ramping up
in cinema globally - up close and yet here impersonal. Very different from
French crime films of the past that were either cool as in the Melville films
or warmly charismatic as in the Jean Gabin, Belmondo or Lino Ventura films.
In those both the cops and villains had rules, there are none here. There
is nothing cool or slick here and the avenging cop is as far from charismatic
as a mouse from a giraffe. He spells bureaucrat with his unemotional grim
face set in stone. The Italian Poliziotteschi were filled with a number
of handsome action actors who were to become stars in the genre. Nothing
feels heroic about this cop. Just fed up with the system. Ready to take out
the trash.
It takes some time for the film to get to The Cop and stick with him. It
intentionally throws the audience off by leading you to think this character
is going to be the protagonist, no - this guy then - no - ok this guy certainly,
no - and then what felt like a minor character finally dons the robes of
the protagonist and runs with it and kills with it. The film keeps
its distance from emotion other than the one female in it and her emotions
lead nowhere except despair. Men don't pay attention to them though one is
willing to kill for her.
The Mandarin is the head of a vicious gang though he looks like an owner
of a corner grocery store. The cops know he is behind drugs, gambling, extortion
but can't touch him. He stays behind the respectable curtains of society
and we never really see him till his time to die comes. His number one goon
who does all the dirty work is Georgy Pretty Smile (Henri Garcin) who has
a cruel smile that Richard Widmark would have been proud of. He is first
seen beating up Robert Dassa (Pierre Massimi) in an alley way with his two
thugs. Dassa refuses to allow the Mandarin to sell drugs in his small club.
We think he will be the hero - till they pick him up later and throw him
off the roof. Not this guy. Later this loathsome threesome visit his club
now being run by his sister (Françoise Fabian) and when she tells
them no, she gets the hell beaten out of her. Slapped repeatedly.
Her brother's friend Dan Rover (Gianni Garko) swears revenge - so he is going
to be the hero - well yes and no. It never goes as you expect. A cop (Bernard
Fresson) starts to investigate the Mandarin and brings with him an old friend
who has been transferred from another region. This is Inspector Favenin (Michel
Bouquet) who says practically nothing. Keeps his mouth shut and pays attention.
They both report to Adolfo Celi, not playing a villain for once. But when
the time comes to act, Favenin does it behind his implacable thin-lipped
face with a gun ready for execution. There are no good guys or bad guys,
everyone is a mix - cops and killers - the cops torture and kill - the killer
brutalize and kill. By the end, your head doesn't know which way to go. This
has been compared to Dirty Harry which came out a year later but really there
is no comparison - Harry may have been willing to go outside the rules but
nothing like this guy. Harry was an action hero to most of the audience.
Your sympathies here are torn. The director is Yves Boisset.
