Ruthless gangsters, boring picture
tony_le_stephanois
A few tough criminals are ruthless in their pursuit of a lot of money. But suddenly they become surrounded by cops. How is that possible? I expected not much…
A few tough criminals are ruthless in their pursuit of a lot of money. But suddenly they become surrounded by cops. How is that possible? I expected not much, but was still disappointed. It is a film that just lacks real tension and excitement, due, I think, to uninspired directing (Serge Leroy) and a mediocre screenplay, with hardly anything original. When realism is your purpose, you should go all the way, like in L.627 and L'engranages, but this film stays stuck somewhere in the middle – much too aggressive to be a romantic film, and too much melodrama to be exciting as a crime film – and that's the main reason it doesn't withstand after thirty years. There is also the problem of Pascale Rocard, who plays her part as Sylvie (I guess on purpose) as flat as possible. In some way it symbolizes her gullible character. Because, well, someone didn't have a clue how to write an interesting female character in a story. Why would a guy like Bertrand still be chasing her, or be chasing her at all? I couldn't figure it out.There is some good news though. It is a pretty decent film from the perspective of Daniel Auteuil, who I expected to be the main character, but wasn't. He seems to be enjoying his role as a young cop with artistic tendencies a lot. Which can not to be said of the bad guy performance by Thierry Lhermitte, one of the stars from Diner des Cons, whose part as Dominique is all about looking over-the-top cool (waaaay too large sunglasses, lots of brylcreem, leather pants, creepy smile). There is some nice sense of cinematography sometimes, but also not much, almost all of the film is average, as well as the music. There's nothing that reminds us here this film is from 1983 – it could as well have been 1977 or 1995 for that matter. Much better crime films from this era are Diva and Police. I rate it 5/10.
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Y'll get this movie under "La Balance (1983)".