Les ripoux

French movie police detectives had already worked in pair before but they were professional partners; "Les Ripoux" is certainly the seminal cop buddy-movie. The 1984 classic inspired several movies that yet never truly captured the charm of Claude Zidi's film, not even the sequels. It's remarkable in its simplicity but its attention to the little details, the dialogues and the performance of Philippe Noiret bring that level of authenticity and credibility that could allow humor to blossom.

'Ripou' is a slang term for 'pourri' which means corrupt, but translating the title into "corrupt cops" would do the film a disservice for it wouldn't carry the practicality and somehow the tenderness of being a cop of the loose kind. There even seems to be an enjoyability of being a cop who knows so much about the real world not to care about pulling a Dirty Harry for each law infringement. It's not that the film dares show corruption as a 'normal' aspect of law enforcement but that it gives, without being too preachy, elements that explain if not justify, why a cop like René Boisrond, played by the unique Philippe Noiret, would elevate the bribe to a level of art, if not science, or let's say a lifestyle, much to his new partner's displeasure.

And before you think that he doesn't know much about the law, just watch the film.

The plot is rather classic by our standards, René is a veteran cop who loses his partner Pierrot (Pierre Frag); in an American film, the partner would be an old Black guy killed during duty but Pierrot had just been caught in flagrante delicto and couldn't possibly snitch on his friend René. There comes François Lesbuches, played by a young, clean-cut and handsome Thierry Lhermitte, he prepares a law degree and is the equivalent of a Serpico dressed like Elliott Ness. The casting is perfect for Noiret's droopy eyes carry the blasé nonchalance brought by years of experience and Lhermitte has that stern, ambitious look of the young rookie who acts by the book. If anything, he wants action, little does he know that inaction is the tacit law that prevails in his run down station. Lhermitte is good but Noiret outperforms him.

I presume that even audiences back then in 1984 could figure that the two wouldn't get along, that their conflict will reach a point where extreme measures would be taken and ultimately the student would surpass the master. But predictability isn't Zidi's concern as his script is more of an excuse for a wonderful immersion into the picturesque world of little cops dealing with little criminals, and confronted to the three "R-T"s: routine, red tape and ultimately... reality. As viewers, we're put in the nicely polished shoes of Lhermitte who's so green that he doesn't even understand the word 'ripou'. When he wants to arrest a petty thief, Boisrond tells him to let him go so he might eventually lead to a bigger fish, the logic doesn't work if you consider tha there'll always be a bigger fish to catch, which leads to François' conclusion that the police's job is to get as many clues and as few arrests as possible. Well, remember what Gittes said about his job at "Chinatown"?

But René has selfish reasons too, he loves horse racing and needs cash to bet on his horses, it so happens that corruption is more lucrative than honesty. What's interesting in the film is that René isn't just labeled as the corrupt guy, in a scene where he challenges François in a 'gun drawing' duel, he beats the kid with the supposedly quicker reflexes, the trick is to ballast your jacket with lead. That's the stuff they don't teach you at school. When François pinpoints a traffic offense during a patrol, in less than thirty seconds, René shows half a dozen of people disobeying the Code, referring to the very article they infringe (numbers included). René might break the law but he knows what he's breaking. The tension between the two cops reach its culmination when René releases François' first catch. He reads to a bewildered François a series of new guidelines warning against overzealous arrests and their negative effect on the district's reputation. François might be a cop but he's also a civil servant.

Ultimately, it's René's partner-in-life Simone, played by singer and night celebrity Régine, that brings the solution with a protégée of her Natasha (Grace de Capitani) The interactions between René and Regine are delightful, he's a cop, she's an ex-prostitute and together they walked the beat long enough to know about the ropes and understand that there's a sort of tacit connection between outlaws and law enforcers, they after all belong to the same world. François will bite the bait and kiss the girl but I wasn't too interested in the romance that the film doesn't insist much on. It doesn't take long for François to trade his flannel suit for a badass leather jacket and to enjoy the new way of the Police until he brings a job that can make René rich while René is trying not to be stewed by the 'beef-carrots' (slang for Bureau of Internal Affairs)

With its urban charm and streetwise humor, "Les Ripoux" can be regarded as a more lighthearted version of Claude Berri's "So Long, Stooge", an exploration of a cosmopolitan world where French lived through the DIY way and weren't too concerned by political correctness, reminding that sometimes the best cops weren't the nicest ones. A glimpse at French history during WW2 would actually make you root for those who disobeyed the law. It's also a time of characters actors such as Julien Giomar who plays the commissionner or Michel Crémades as the pickpocket. A time where it wasn't difficult to make a good film. In fact it's not, have a good story, great characters and a touch of authenticity.