In the 80's, women started to enter the police in many European countries. One of those was France, and filmmakers rushed to comment on this change. While some parodied women's presence, "Le gendarme et les gendarmettes" (1982) being a prime example of this, others admired their work, such as Yves Boisset, who offered an interesting portrayal of a policewoman with "La femme flic" in 1980.
Boisset based his film on the real story of a cop he had met while shooting another film in Thailand. She had discovered a pedophilia network, while being obstructed by her bosses, who didn't want to expose prominent members of society that were taking part in this disgusting activity.
The plot respects the original story, and the struggle of the heroine, inspector Corinne Levasseur, to serve justice is shown with realism, and without being parodied by the director.
Speaking of which, he did a good job showing his characters' personalities, and their attitudes towards the problem. Some don't want to be involved, others want to support the inspector, while there are also those who want to hide their involvement in the network so as not to be condemned. The head of the police, at the same time, is portrayed as a classic example of the state's institutions protecting the wrongdoing elite, since he covers the latter group of people.
The cast was excellent too, especially the protagonist Miou-Miou. Another revelation of French 80's cinema, she interpreted the role of the determined heroine realistically, and it was mostly her performance that kept the film going. Interesting to note is the presence of Leny Escudéro, a former yéyé singer who had his breakthrough with "Pour une amourette" in 1962. He didn't give any special performance, but the participation of artists in films was always of interest to me.
What was particularly pleasing to me about this film is its portrayal of women as members of the police. Inspector Levasseur is shown to receive derogatory comments about her profession, due to the fact of her being a woman, both by her male colleagues, ang by more traditional women she meets during her struggle to uncover the criminal network. When compared to the aforementioned film "Le gendarme et les gendarmettes", the last part in the gendarme series with Louis de Funès, one can see the difference in how policewomen are characterized. In "La femme flic", they are respected for their work by the director, and shown to act with sensibility. In the latter movie, they are mostly parodied, shown to be sensitive, seductive, and just there for comedic relief. It is understandable why now "Le gendarme et les gendarmettes" is negatively regarded, while "La femme flic" enjoys a more positive reputation.
All in all, fans of the classic policier genre will enjoy this version with a woman as the protagonist. While not standing a chance against box-office successes "La Boum", "The empire strikes back", and "Kramer versus Kramer", it is a respectable film that deservedly surpassed one million admissions. Besides, not all films need to be cult in order to be good.
