Summary
Paris, 1947. Roger Borniche sees himself as the star cop of the Sûreté
nationale, but he despises the brutal methods used by his colleagues. He has the
opportunity to prove the superiority of his more humane, methodical approach when he is
tasked with tracking down an escaped convicted killer, Émile Buisson. In
the short time since his escape from a psychiatric hospital, Buisson has managed to settle
several old scores and pull off some daring hold-ups. In spite of Borniche’s self-confidence,
capturing the ruthless Buisson will be no easy task...
Review
Based on a real-life account by police investigator- turned- best-selling novelist Roger
Borniche, Flic Story is a compelling crime-thriller, of the kind that was hugely
popular in France in the 1970s. The glacial, existentialist mood, the attention
to minutiae, the moral ambiguity of police and crooks - all are clear references to the
films of Jean-Pierre Melville, widely regarded as the master of the French gangster film.
This is director Jacques Deray’s well-meaning attempt to make a quality film in the guise
of the popular film policier. Although the end result isn’t quite a masterpiece,
it can still be counted as one of Deray’s better films.
The similarities with Melville’s Le
Samouraï are striking - and perhaps a little too obvious, except this time
Alain Delon is on the side of the law upholders, and he is anything but a gun-toting villain.
In the opening sequence, Delon is dressed and filmed in almost exactly the same way as
in Le Samourai - and, as in that film, Delon’s character is shown to be a maverick
loner who adheres to a code of honour which no one can force him to break.
The intention may have been to wrong-foot the audience from the outset and thereby make
Delon’s character - an overly idealistic policeman - all the more heroic and sympathetic.
It is a simple ploy but it works well - Delon is generally not hugely convincing when
playing the good guy, but here he is magnificent.
Cast opposite Delon in this film is Jean-Louis Trintingant, who also manages to turn in
one of his best performances. Starting out as cold anonymous killer, Trintingant’s
character is gradually revealed to be much more complex and humane. At the same
time, the police who are pursuing him progressively lose our sympathy as they resort to
brutality and trickery. In contrast with Melville’s films, the moral ground
is not immutable but is seen to shift; no one is truly good, no one is truly bad.
In the end, the characters played by Delon and Trintingant attain a forced moral equivalence
- each the moral superior in his respective milieu. When the State extinguishes
Buisson, Borniche too is extinguished; each is the mirror image of the other, neither
can exist without the other.
Although it doesn’t have the natural artistic brilliance of Jean-Pierre Melville’s thrillers,
Flic Story is nonetheless a fine example of the popular film policier.
Its period setting lends it a quality feel and sombre mood, whilst its lead actors bring
humanity and depth to the drama - characteristics which, sadly, most crime-thrillers of
the 1970s lacked.
© James Travers 2003
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