Der Bulle von Paris

Maurice Pialat's Police is a moody, gritty French noir. The film stars Gérard Depardieu as Mangin a rough, no-nonsense police detective, that during the process of trying to bust a Tunisian drug ring falls for a mysterious alluring woman (Sophie Marceau) whose linked heavily with the gang. Maurice Pialat directs this film with his usual stoic motifs, and just like The Mouth Agape it works for this film. The tone is excellent thanks to the use of classic noir elements. The main issue I had with the film, is that that it wasn't concise about what it wanted to achieve, whether that's to be a straight police procedural or a character piece/love story, in the end it becomes a melting pot of different ideas.

Another problem I had with this film was it came across too passive, there was no punch to the story, everything just happens with low energy. The pacing left a-lot to be desired, most of Pialat's work is finely paced, but in a film like this which is more focused on plot it needed to be a bit quicker. There were large portions of the film where I found myself becoming disinterested in what was happening on screen.

This is the weakest film I've seen from Pialat so far. What saves the film from being flat-out boring is Gérard Depardieu's excellent performance. He carries the film by being constantly interesting and engaging. He's also a fantastic conduit for other performers as his energetic screen presence bounces off all the actors in the film. Most notably is his terrific chemistry with Sophie Marceau together they really keep the film alive when it starts to become contrived and uninteresting.

This is the weakest film I've seen from Mubi's retrospective look at Pialat's filmography, which is disappointing because I've enjoyed the majority of his films. In summery Police is a missed opportunity, it's an average crime drama that's boosted by two strong central performances. Police is the last film from Pialat's mostly stellar filmography that I would recommend.