Film Review: The French Detective (Adieu poulet, 1975)
Political disagreements these days occur mostly on Internet, where the worst thing that could happen is someone getting deplatformed. In real life, however, consequences can be much more severe, as shown in the beginning of The French Detective, 1975 French crime thriller directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre. During the election campaign in the city of Rouen, two rival groups of campaign workers get into a fight over posters and young man gets beaten to death. Police inspector Moirtrier (played by Gérard Hérold), who tried to break up a fight, gets shot and dies, but not before identifying Antoine Portor (played by Claude Brosset), ex convict with the history of violence, as the perpetrator. His boss, Commissioner Verjeat (played by Lino Ventura), is determined to bring Portor to justice, but the investigation gets complicated due to fact that Portor was hired by Pierre Lardatte (played by Victor Lanoux), influential politician with many powerful friends in the police and who fears that the investigation might not only harm his campaign but also discover various shady dealings. Verjeat is soon told by his superiors about his promotion and immediate transfer to new post in Montpellier. He is, however, now determined to get both Portor and Lardatte, so, together with his young subordinate Inspector Lefèvre (played by Patrick Dewaere) devises ingenious plan to postpone his transfer and continue investigation.
Film was based on the novel by prolific crime author Raf Vallet, which had been inspired by the real events in Parisian suburb of Puteaux few years earlier. The French Detective, scripted by renowned writer and film maker Francis Veber, however, takes a lot of inspiration by trends in Hollywood and Western European cinema in 1970s and paints bleak picture of the world where the line between organised crime and government gets blurred with police being inevitably either drawn into or hampered by widespread corruption. Granier-Deffere, however, isn’t that interested in moralistic sermons and instead directs fast-paced police thriller with couple action scenes that involve gunfights and car chases, with some black humour thrown for good measure. The best asset is in the cast, despite characters being mostly one-dimensional and undeveloped. Former boxer Lino Ventura again deliver both great talent and charisma as world-weary but intelligent protagonist who finds the way to manipulate corrupt system against itself. Patrick Dewaere is somewhat less effective as his younger and more reckless colleague, but he still has enough talent to create to create good “buddy buddy” dynamic, and it is a shame that film didn’t feature more scenes of those two characters together. Some of the younger viewers might be put off by “political incorrectness” of the characters that physically abuse prisoners, use some simple methods of dealing with street protesters or butt slap nurses in hospital. However, even in this flawed form The French Detective represents good example of effective and easily digestible genre piece.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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